PAC Chairman: “PATH Programme is Almost like the Lottery”

PATH Programme is almost like the lottery” – The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has sought to provide answers to Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for the almost 217 million dollars in uncollected Programme of Advancement through Health and Education (PATH) grants that were sitting in financial institutions for months and even up to three years.

From issues of payment to limited social workers to selection and compliance of the very beneficiaries themselves, the PAC is calling for a revision of the PATH Programme arguing the current framework is ineffective.

The Public Accounts Committee is calling for a revision of the programme of advancement through health and education, path. The programme was created to improve the quality and access to the network of social services to poor and vulnerable Jamaicans.

Chairman of the PAC, Julian Robinson says the Programme is not transparent, this was a unanimous conclusion on both political sides.

PATH grants by cheques are suspended if uncollected after two consecutive periods. However the auditor general’s report revealed that as of March 2020,

There was almost 271 million dollars paid out under path grants, sitting at financial institutions, uncollected by the beneficiaries.

Of that amount 77 million dollars was there from 2017, for 1.823 people over several pay cycles.