JAS to be weaned of state funds within a year - Fulton
Published:Wednesday | July 6, 2022 | 12:06 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
THE 127-year-old Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) has been served notice that it will be taken off the Government’s books in less than a year from now.
“We got the letter of authority that the JAS will transition in May 2023. That came out of a meeting in June with the PriceWaterhouse team, saying that based on the Cabinet decision, they want us (JAS) off their books,” Lenworth Fulton, outgoing president of the JAS, told The Gleaner.
In response, a JAS team will be seeking a meeting with the Government to discuss its transitional position, which, among other things, will leave the fate of its staff members, who are considered public servants, up to the authorities.
“But we will ask that they give us a carry-on grant for at least three years, which will allow us to hire persons on contract to run the JAS, until it gets going. We will also ask that they absorb all our debts since the JAS is subscribed by the act of 1940, which makes us a government institution. We can’t borrow money without the minister (of agriculture) giving us permission, so that permission constitutes a government guarantee,” Fulton explained, going on lay out other demands.
“All our lands must be tax-free like church land. We are going to ask for that and we are going to ask for titles for all the lands that we have under lease, and we are going to ask that Denbigh become a national project.”
In respect to the latter, the JAS outgoing president said he has written to Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia Grange, Prime Minister Andrew Holness and Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Desmond McKenzie to have the 52-acre Denbigh showground in May Pen, Clarendon, included in the 60th anniversary Independence.
Meanwhile, in terms of the preparation for this year’s agricultural, industrial and food show, he said the grounds are about 80 per cent complete and the parish pavilions are about 60 per cent.
In August 2010, the JAS executive demanded that the Government set it free to operate as a viable, independent organisation during a Gleaner Editors’ Forum at its Church Street head office in downtown Kingston.
“The Government has benefited from the legacy of the JAS ... and, therefore, as a golden handshake, it should give us a sum and then retire us and we will proceed now to move into several projects to transform the agricultural sector,” then president Norman Grant demanded.
As a statutory body, the JAS reports to the Ministry of Agriculture and must get approval from the Ministry of Finance that, over the years, it has been reluctant to give.
“We wrote to the minister in 2008 to say that we want to engage a strategic review to reposition the JAS. The JAS, notwithstanding $400 million worth of assets, cannot use those assets because we are seen as a statutory body,” Grant disclosed.