Lawsuit looms in new JC spat

The leadership of the Old Hope Road-based Jamaica College (JC) is seeking an account of how funds totalling $3.1 million, which were reportedly collected by the old boys’ association on behalf of the 232-year-old institution, were used.

The management of the school, which has been marred by controversy since the resignation of former principal Ruel Reid from the Holness Cabinet amid fraud and corruption charges, said steps are being taken to file a lawsuit.

Major Basil Jarrett has been the president of Jamaica College Old Boys’ Association (JCOBA) since 2014 and has been entangled in a public spat with the leadership of the school since late last year over the handling of Reid’s departure from the school.

Jarrett declined to comment on the matter when contacted by The Gleaner, stating only that he would consult with his attorney before responding.

But in a four-hour-long Zoom meeting organised by the school’s board and trust on Sunday, more than 100 stakeholders linked to JC were informed that JCOBA was asked by acting principal Wayne Robinson to spearhead a programme for the sale of uniforms and other school-related merchandise.

This was after Robinson negotiated a deal with distributors Joseph Sports Inc.

Robinson said the money generated from the sale has not been turned over to the school and that no account of its use has come from JCOBA.

The acting principal claimed that there has been resistance from JCOBA to calls for an “account for money to me as the school’s CEO received”.

The behaviour, Robinson told the meeting, “is unacceptable and cannot go on if we are to avoid a return to the pre-Danny Williams days”.

Vice-chairman of the school’s board, Lance Hylton, who chaired the meeting, shared that US$20,494.26, or J$3,176,610.30, is currently owed to the supplier and that the school has been threatened with a lawsuit for the funds.

That money is expected to increase, he said, with the upward movement of the exchange rate.

“The question was, what has become of the money? ... The supplier has not been paid,” he said.

Hylton said this matter, among others, will be brought to the attention of Education Minister Fayval Williams, who is being urged to declare Jarrett unfit to be appointed to the school board and to have his tenure revoked.

Williams was scheduled to meet the JC board following its rejection of the Doran Dixon-chaired Governance Committee of the National Council on Education directive that Jarrett’s status on the board be restored.

The board and the ministry remain at odds over the locus standi of Jarrett, who is also vice-president of the parent-teacher association.