JAS president stunned at PC bank irregularities

President of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) Senator Norman Grant has said he was deeply concerned about reports from the Agricultural Credit Board's audit of the National People's Cooperative Bank which unearthed irregularities at the lending institution.

Senator Grant told The Gleaner on Wednesday that as president of the JAS, he was concerned about the institution, which for years, has been handling the hard-earned money of farmers.

"It is of great concern to me, not only as president, but I have given well over 15 years of my voluntary life helping to reorganise the PC Bank over an extended period of time," Grant said.

Grant urged the Agricultural Credit Board to move quickly to halt the situation at the PC Bank and restore confidence in the system. He also encouraged the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) to revisit a model where there is a unit outside of the DBJ which provides operational oversight and support to institutions like the PC banks which are approved financial institutions of the DBJ.

The JAS president was the first chairman of the Integrated People's Cooperative Bank Network, a consultative committee that had oversight responsibility under the DBJ to merge more than 100 PC banks into one PC Bank. He carried out those duties from 1994 to 2003.