The St Catherine Municipal Corporation (SCMC) has been given a week's extension by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament to submit an updated timeline for the presentation of outstanding appropriation accounts.
The delay is largely attributed to the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) holding onto critical documents as part of its probe into allegations of what the agency dubbed in January as "serious (alleged) organised crime" at the corporation.
PAC Chairman, Julian Robinson, extended the time after the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the SCMC, Marvalyn Pitter, outlined a number of challenges facing the corporation, at the PAC's meeting last week.
According to Pitter, the corporation was up to date with its accounts in 2020, but now faces several challenges, including space limitations, ongoing recruitment, and the unavailability of documents that were seized by MOCA.
Pitter also highlighted the corporation's struggles with record keeping due to its termite-infested building, and also space constraints.
"I have recognised that we have serious space challenges, and we are also in a termite-infested building that also impacts our recording keeping," she shared.
To address the challenges, Pitter has instructed her team to attach all necessary supporting documents to the records, and to develop a roadmap for storing those documents.
"I have indicated to the team that all the records and the necessary supporting documents must be attached... So, if it is financial statements for whichever year, we should have all of those documents to provide to the auditor general when they come to the office, because that is critical," Pitter indicated.
On that score, Robinson requested an update on the timeline for the presentation of the outstanding appropriation accounts from the SCMC in another week.
But Pitter said she was unclear when MOCA would return the documents that were seized, as the anti-corruption agency has not indicated when their probe will be completed.
"They (MOCA) have taken critical documents that we need to use currently, and we are just stuck.
"We have written to MOCA, because there were some critical things - some computers - and we got back the computers. But, as it relates to the physical documents, because it is quite a bit that they have taken, they still have those, and they (MOCA) are not able to say to me when the investigation will be completed," Pitter stated.
In a January 17 release, MOCA said it, alongside personnel from the Financial Investigation Division (FID) and supported by the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), were involved in a joint operation related to the probe into "allegations of serious organised crime" at the SCMC.
The operation began with a series of targeted operations across 17 locations in the parishes of Kingston, St Catherine and Westmoreland, which were aimed at executing search warrants at the various locations in connection with that investigation.
"Those locations are affiliated to employees or associates of employees of the SCMC," MOCA said then.
It was state then that the "meticulous" and "painstaking" probe began some five years ago.
It is unclear if any arrests have been made, or any charges have been laid in relation to the development since then.
