The Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) placed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education Grace Mclean in the hot seat after her presentation on the expenditure for one of the Ministry’s projects, which started in 2016 called the centre of occupational studies.
Mclean outlines that in 2017-2018 over 325 million dollars was budgeted for 1500 students to cover the tuition and other operational costs however, only 569 students were enrolled but, the budget was not adjusted causing great concerns for the PAAC.
As the Permanent Secretary Mclean scuffled through papers to answer accountability question and promises to provide some of the answers at a later date Tova Hamilton challenged Mclean by asking about the money being returned to the Ministry for the 40% of students who dropped.
To add even more questions on the accountability of the moneys spent on the COS project, Chairman Mikael Phillips pointed out the large sum of money allocated to the Western Hospitality Institution as compared to what is allocated to other institutions. However, Mclean says she cannot dictate the amount of students who are enrolled in the various institutions and according to her record Western Hospitality Institution has the highest certification rate.
The Chairman additional questioned the oversight committee who views these allocations, which shone light on other issues.
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