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PCJ winding up on track for March - Palmer

Published:Wednesday | January 29, 2020 | 1:22 PM
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology, Carol Palmer - File photo

Paul Clarke, Gleaner Writer

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Science, Energy and Technology Carol Palmer says the process of winding up the state-owned Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) and several of its subsidiaries is well on track.

The disclosure was made during today’s sitting of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament.

Palmer indicated that Petrojam Limited will continue to operate as a public company and that the Jamaica Airline Refueling Services (JARS) will undergo a different arrangement.

British Petroleum owns 51 per cent of the entity.

“The PCJ is scheduled for wind up as of the March 31, 2020, so all actions and all transition activities prescribed by the Transformation Implementation Unit of the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service are in full gear,” Palmer said.

The Petrojam Ethanol Company Limited (PEL) is to be wound up by the same date, while Petrojam Limited will be subjected to a process of consultations, as recommended by a Strategic Review.

The operations of JARS were moved to Petrojam last year when the Government indicted that its joint-venture partner wanted to exit the business.

At the time, Energy Minister Fayval Williams said that JARS would add value to Petrojam.

Williams, in September 2019, justified the wind-up as an informed decision made by Cabinet to change the institutional arrangements of PCJ, Petrojam Ethanol and JARS, in keeping with the 2017 Cabinet-approved rationalisation plan for the reintegration of eligible public bodies into central government.

Under that plan, select public bodies will be rationalised, either by integration or reintegration into central Government, as divisions or departments with ministries or through mergers with other public bodies where synergies of resources and functions have been identified.

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