Fulton to bow out as JAS president

Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) President Lenworth Fulton will not be seeking a return to office when the 126-year-old organisation hosts its long-overdue election of officers.

He made the disclosure during a Gleaner interview on Wednesday, admitting that since suffering a mild stroke last year, which affected the left side of his body, he is yet to regain full mobility even though his mental faculties remain as sharp as ever.

“I am not going to contest the elections whenever they are held,” he said candidly.

However, before he demits office, Fulton has set himself the task of ensuring that audited financial statements, which also reflects earnings from its property rental incomes across the country, are incorporated.

“I have postponed the annual general meeting twice – in October and again in November – for two simple reasons. The JAS needs to have an audited financial statement that speaks to all its rental income, and I have set out on a mission to get those into the records for the first time probably in 35 or 40 years.

“There is no need for an audited financial statement if the only thing that it reflects is our bank loan payment and the monthly government subvention from Government, which covers the salaries of staff, … but there are some other incomes that we have to get into the records,” the president insisted.

Among the properties targeted under the pending audited financial statements are a property at Compton House in Manchester, another at Great Georges Street in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland, and another in St James.

“I set them a task that they should give me the last three years of financial records, and they have been complying. However, our internal auditor has not finished, and I hope they will be finished before the end of this year so that these can be sent on to the external auditor to give a true picture of the financial status of the JAS,” said Fulton.

This is especially important since the JAS, which, since its formation in 1895 has been an umbrella organisation representing the interest of farmers from the different and diverse agricultural sectors, is now preparing to transition into a co-operative society.

“That’s the only structure that will suit the JAS going forward - that everyone could participate in it because every farmer should have a say in our assets. So we have decided to go that route,” Fulton told The Gleaner.

Declaring that the JAS is going through one of the most perilous periods in its history, with the Government set to withdraw its financial support, Fulton said that he did not anticipate the current arrangement to go beyond the 2022-2023 financial year.

“That’s how it is looking to me although I have nothing from Government to say so, but based on what I would call their various arguments, in various meetings, it seems that way,” he said.

christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com