Grace McLean’s lawyer says client anxious to clear her name

Attorney, Peter Champagnie (KC) who is representing embattled former acting Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Dr Grace McLean, is expressing concern about the pace of the investigation into allegations of financial impropriety.

His comments came against the background of Friday’s search of McLean’s premises by the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) as part of an ongoing probe into alleged impropriety involving the Ministry of Education and the Joint Committee on Tertiary Education (JCTE) which became a private entity, after being established as a public institution.

Other locations in Kingston and St. Andrew, three in St James, and one in Westmoreland were searched by MOCA on Friday.

“The pace of the investigation is a concern because anyone in her position, being of the view, as she is, that she is innocent, she is on interdiction and is being prejudiced by this. She is anxious to have the process get under way so that her name can be cleared,” noted Champagnie,” adding that McLean emphatically maintains her innocence and is willing to cooperate with the probe.

He also said that his client was very cooperative and respectful and allowed the process to take its course persuant to the warrant. He added that McLean was not concerned about data on the seized items.

“The expectation is that she will be vindicated at the end of the process,” he charged.

Properties linked to Cecil Cornwall, who served as chairman of the JCTE, were also searched as well as Excelsior Community College on Mountain View Avenue in St Andrew. The College’s principal, Philmore McCarthy, had served as treasurer of JCTE.

Documents and devices were taken from the locations and were turned over to cyber and forensic experts for processing, according to investigators from MOCA.

In 2021, Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis recommended that portfolio minister Fayval Williams ask the police or an anti-corruption agency to further investigate how some $124 million in taxpayers’ money was spent by the JCTE.

Monroe Ellis revealed that based on HEART Trust’s financial records, $75 million was transferred to JCTE between September 2017 and September 2018 to train 250 students in the Occupational Associate Degree (OAD) programme.

The auditor general reported that the HEART/NSTA Trust could not confirm that the $75 million transferred to JCTE was used to fund the Centre of Occupational Studies (COS) in the ministry as stipulated in the project charter.

Her probe also found that between February 2019 and June 2020, the education ministry, under the leadership of McLean, transferred approximately $75.9 million to JCTE. McLean has been on interdiction since January last year.