good afternoon i'm vashan brown with the
midday news a special welcome if you're
watching
on onespotmedia.com we begin with a
developing story in the region
a hurricane watch remains in effect for
barbados and saint vincent and the
grenadines
as tropical storm gonzalo continues
along the path to the caribbean
tropical storm gonzalo is expected to
begin affecting portions of the windward
islands
on saturday after gaining hurricane
strength forecasters say the storm's
structure
has become a little disheveled and
there's still uncertainty in gonzalo's
intensity forecast
they say out of an abundance of caution
the official forecast continues to show
gonzalo becoming a hurricane
in about 24 hours rainfall is expected
over barbados
trinidad and tobago and the windward
islands which
includes saint vincent and the
grenadines and dominica from tomorrow to
sunday
at 11 o'clock this morning the center of
tropical storm gonzalo was moving toward
the west
near 13 miles per hour maximum sustained
winds are near 62 miles per hour
now back on the local scene a man who is
believed to be one of the shooters
in the incident on constant spring road
in santandro this morning
is in hospital on the police guard after
he turned up for treatment
another of the alleged gunmen was shot
and killed during the reported
confrontation with the police
two police officers were shot and
injured the incident happened about 1
30.
it was reported that two policemen were
on patrol when they observed a white
honda civic parked on the road
they approached the vehicle and
attempted to make inquiries the
occupants reportedly fired on the
policemen
hitting them both before attempting to
flee the injured officers returned the
gunfire
and the car crashed a short distance
away now one of the men
ran from the vehicle and the driver who
received the bullet wound was held
the injured persons were taken to
hospital where the unidentified driver
died while undergoing
treatment a retrograde step
the response from the commission of the
independent commission of investigations
in the come terrence williams
to the government's decision not to give
the commission prosecutorial powers
justice minister del or chuck told
parliament on tuesday
that his administration no longer thinks
it's necessary
for indicom to be given such powers but
speaking on tvj's all angles last night
mr williams says the decision is bad for
police accountability
the privy council ruled earlier this
year that indicom does not have the
power to arrest
charge and prosecute members of the
security forces but a joint select
committee of parliament in 2015
said indicom should be given those
powers this was the justice minister del
roy chuck in parliament on tuesday mr
speaker
in light of the private council's ruling
and the recent increase in the numbers
of prosecutors
in the dpp's office the present
administration
reconsidered the joint select
committee's recommendation
to this in the commerce prosecutorial
police
and thought it no longer necessary for
such prosecutorial powers
to be given to indicom outgoing
commissioner of indicom terence williams
says the government's decision not to
give the commission prosecutorial powers
is a bad move
i'm very disappointed i think it's going
to set back police accountability many
many years
the police in jamaica
are being now put in a position where
they are going to be
somewhat exceptional and above the law
in that
if the police bringing a case against
uri
they need no dpp permission to bring it
they can bring it
but to bring a case against the
policeman it's now
the the administration is saying the dpp
must permit
it and indeed a combination of the dpp
and the police must put it before the
court so mr williams has
this question why can't indicom
enjoy the same powers as the police have
to put matters before the court the
minister's statement in parliament did
not mention whether indicum would be
given the polls to arrest and charge
members of the security forces
mr chuck spoke specifically about
prosecutorial powers
but mr williams says based on his
information the plan is that the powers
to arrest and charge
will be between the office of the
director of public prosecutions and the
police what i particularly
distressed about this is the process
to reach the decision was that there was
a joint select committee
now five almost seven years ago and the
joint select committee
heard all of the submissions by police
federation
everybody and they said no intercom must
be able to arrest
charge and prosecute and then what
happens over the years now the police
um behind the scenes lobby the
government to say
no ineco mustn't have that power
and the government falls to the police
lobbying
in the meantime mr williams believes the
government's decision is not good for
the work of in the comments it weakens
the command of the institution
it weakens police accountability it is a
a retrograde step by the administration
i only have a few days left but for a
few days that i have left i will
criticize it
and i will continue to say it's a very
poor step
concerns this afternoon about the
operations of the emergency pause review
tribunal
now the tribunal adjudicates on appeals
brought by persons
who have been detained under the states
of public emergency attorney
law isaac buchanan described the
tribunal as toothless
there are situations where our competent
judges who are trained and sits in the
court of appeal
in the court on the court of appeal to
uphold the constitution
says what you have on the man
officer presents himself and the judge
says not sufficient give him bail
without conditions
and officer says hold on the judge think
she should know too much you know too
much
take him up in the in the state of
emergency and the minister says
i'm satisfied and then the toothless
tribunal says
well the minister is satisfied we are
not here to
to use reasonable doubt as long as the
minister drinks his tea
and waves his pen we we sign and we are
okay and we're different from the court
the court do their thing and you
disrespect a judge and you that's a
breach of the doctrinal separations of
all
what we're saying is that the tribunals
are told by the regulation to deem
all persons in custody has been in
lawful custody
and that's what regulations say so they
start with the assumption that the
persons are in custody lawful that's the
first thing
secondly the tribunal will also tell you
that they're not there
to replace the court they're not trying
the matters to decide whether or not mr
mati
say kill me kill somebody or not what
they're there to do is just to look at
is there simply enough persons who you
don't know
unknown sources even to the tribunal who
make allegations about you
both mr clark and mr buchanan were
speaking on tvj's all angles last night
following an order by the supreme court
that five men detained under several of
the existing states of public emergency
should be freed the five men had been
detained in states of emergency in
westmoreland
centennial south and east kingston the
men had asked
the court to have their detentions
declared unlawful and unconstitutional
we now take a break on the middle news
but we'll be right back please stay with
us
welcome back continuing the news now the
education ministry says it will make
significant changes to schools across
the island
in an effort to prevent the spread of
the coronavirus when students return to
the classroom in september
the issue was raised at yesterday's
virtual launch of a high-level
commission on education transformation
prince moore reports the kovit 19
pandemic has forced the government to
institute changes to jamaica's education
system
but many have been asking what will
schools look like come september when
students return to the classroom
the ministry of education says it will
adopt what it calls
a blended teaching method in all schools
come september
as part of efforts to prevent the spread
of covet 19.
education minister carl samuda says the
approach will see students alternating
between physically attending school
and doing classes online
as i speak we are finalizing
preparations for the beginning of the 20
20 21
school year we have adopted a blended
approach
so in september our students will
receive instructions
both face to face and via distance
and online under online teaching
while the blended approach is a remedy
for teaching and learning during the
covet 19 pandemic
prime minister anja holness believes
there are other gaps in the education
system
the new world bank human capital index
ranks
each country in terms of productivity
of the next generation of workers and
identifies jamaica
as among the countries that have made
significant human capital gains
despite the progress however important
gaps remain
the world bank study points out that
children born in jamaica today
will be only 54
as productive when they grow up as they
could be
if they enjoyed complete education
and full health it's why mr wholeness on
wednesday
launched a high level commission on
education transformation
the commission which consists of 14
members
will be tasked with conducting a
comprehensive review
and assessment of the country's
education system after which a report is
to be completed by march next year
mr wholeness believes the commission can
help to fill those gaps
what i'm looking for is not tinkering or
tweaking
but real radical change
that will put jamaica on an entirely new
trajectory
to growth and prosperity
the commission will be chaired by
professor orlando patterson
a jamaican who is professor of sociology
at harvard university in the united
states
the commission also includes dean of the
faculty of science and technology at the
university of the west indies mona
professor michael taylor acting
president of the university of
technology
professor colin giles as well as ceo of
edu focal
gordon swaby among others prince moore
tvj news it's not immediately clear if
holland produces limited
will be able to pay the government for
lands occupied for roughly a year
scj holdings and its partners will be
doing an assessment but so far
the company's financial standing is not
looking good
andrea chisholm has details from
parliament's public administration
and appropriations committee pac holland
produces limited
hpl got permission from scj holdings
to use 2 400 acres of land in holland st
elizabeth pending the finalization of a
lease agreement
as is usually the case hpl would be
required to pay the lease amount
retroactively
from the time it took control of the
property paac member mikhail phillips
raised concerns with managing director
of
scg holdings joseph care so there are
two issues
one you blundered for not putting in a
lease within that one year period
and two is that know that they have even
sent you some of them need to pay
something to the taxpayers
so may i remember let me start off by
saying
i have to agree with you that at least
should have been in place at an earlier
date
no question it puts a number of issues
beyond dispute
so how much will hollande producers
limited hpl b-paying scg
for the july 2019 to july 2020 period
mr shakir said an assessment will be
done in conjunction with the agriculture
ministry
and agro-investment corporation aic
which
now owns holland estate it's interesting
to note that
hpl's account summary shows lease income
of roughly 6.5 million and expenditure
6.2 million dollars accounts receivables
or money to be collected
stand at approximately 7.2 million
clearly the accounts when verified
will have an implication on the outcome
of those
discussions because if it turns out
as has been indicated which is
that there is uncollectible receivables
no
i don't know the quality of the
receivables but if they are uncollected
receivables of seven million dollars
now you and i and members will
understand that
if this is owned by farmers it's going
to be held to collect
as for accounts payable meaning money
owed
that stands at roughly 6.6 million
dollars
from the advice from the inquiries i
have made
that the accounts payable represent in
that
represent almost in its entirety
outstanding security charges for
securing the property
why i looked at these numbers here
because this may end up telling you
what is the financial position of hbo
it may be an insolvent company scj
holdings was
introduced to hbl through a letter from
mp
and then minister without portfolio in
the agriculture ministry
j.c hutchinson mr hutchinson has since
apologized stating that his actions were
never for
personal benefit mr phillips questioned
the track record of hbl
which was incorporated in may 2019. but
you took up an entity that had no track
record of
was it because of the word of the
minister himself but clearly the
recommendation of the member of
parliament is significant
it turns out that one of the directors
of hbl
lola marshall williams was mr
hutchinson's partner and
mother of his child she has since
resigned from the company
as well as the board of the rural
agriculture development agency radha
paac chairman dr vika mcneil read a
section of a report
from scj holdings for the avoidance of
doubt it needs to be expressly stated
that scg had absolutely no knowledge
of any connection between mrs marshall
williams might have had with any
government of jamaica official
andrea chisholm tvj news
volunteers from the corporate era
participated in a cleanup exercise of
the sergani beach
along the kingston harbour recently over
150 bags of waste material were removed
from the beach
there's also a call for persons to be
more careful with garbage disposal
i think it's a very bad practice
i think it's a selfish habit and
i think persons need to become more
conscious about
how they dispose their waste and their
garbage i think it's terrible
right and i think that we need to
educate the children
because in other schools if you go there
after lunch break
there's garbage all around the school
and they should be told to pick it up
you know if they don't do it in schools
or at their homes then they won't come
out
or grow up to know what to do minister
without portfolio and the minister of
national security matthew samuda
confirmed that there was a major
reduction in styrofoam and plastic
bottles on the beach
he says despite the positive sign
there's need for a joint approach from
all stakeholders
to address the issue of garbage disposal
there are several programs geared at
dealing with i know nepal has a plastic
initiative a plastic reduction
initiative in the area
nswm has a a project for separation most
of these projects are in there
they're in fancy and in their pilot
stage there's a pilot project going on
for the deposit refund scheme with
jamaica recycling group
um so there's several initiatives coming
together what we need now is to upscale
our ambition and to
really get everybody to work together to
tie the veering programs into one
there's work to be done in terms of how
people behave and there's work to be
done
certainly at a government level and
whatever in terms of increasing capacity
we have noted several new garbage trucks
added to the fleet recently with nswma
which is a step in the right direction
and a big move for the ministry local
government and a big move from ministry
of finance
tana for sports netball jamaica could be
in line to benefit from the
international netball federation
covet 19 response fund which has been
created for each region to address
financial challenges
caused by the coronavirus pandemic the
inf said the fund would provide
immediate support
to those members with the greatest need
membership fees for
2020 2021 for 2021
will be reduced by 50 compared to 2020
for those organizations who have paid in
full for this year
as part of measures designed to
alleviate the financial impact of the
pandemic
on the sport and its members the inf is
also set to enter the final stage of the
planning process
for its new strategic plan due to be
launched later this year now members
provided feedback to the inf
on the plan in a series of regional
online road shows held
last month and that's the middle news
i'm vaishan brown don't forget to join
us at 7 for a primetime news package
on behalf of the news sports and
production teams have a wonderful
afternoon
