Sweeney: Don’t sell JSIF assets given for bolstering businesses
Published:Saturday | March 26, 2022 | 12:10 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
OMAR SWEENEY, managing director of the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF), is urging beneficiaries of the fund’s grant projects not to sell the equipment they get from programmes meant to bolster their businesses if they no longer desire to make use of those assets.
Speaking yesterday during JSIF’s launch of its Salt Spring Enterprise Development Grant Project – Cycle 2 in Salt Spring, St James, Sweeney said that such actions deprive other potential beneficiaries, citing a recent incident where his organisation had to reclaim items that a recipient had sold.
“We have had a single case of a person who chose to no longer be in business, and they decided to sell the equipment that was granted to them. It was uncovered by our own processes of follow-up, and we have taken the steps to recover the amounts (the value of the items),” said Sweeney.
“My message to you today is that if you encounter that decision as the beneficiaries to no longer be in business, JSIF and the Government are here to either provide additional support or to give you the right alternative of what to do, because somebody else could need that help. But let us not be selfish,” Sweeney added.
According to the JSIF boss, disposing of assets which the organisation has given for the empowerment of micro and small business owners could cast a bad light on initiatives such as the Integrated Community Development Project Phase 2 (ICDP II), under which the Community Development Project is being held.
“If you do not need the help or if you no longer think that this help can suit you, nothing is wrong with that. But you must go back through the same road you walked to get here so that somebody else can benefit,” Sweeney explained. “Do not make it worse for somebody else, bring the programme into disrepute, or make people sceptical about it, because you know how hard it is to get this kind of help.”
Sweeney’s concern about potential resistance to outreach programmes is similar to that which was raised in February 2020 regarding resistance to attempted entrepreneurship and job creation measures in Mt Salem, St James, when that community was under a Zone of Special Operations (ZOSO).
At that time, residents of Mt Salem claimed not to have seen any significant change in their community’s economic fortunes or any interest on the part of young people, particularly males, to take advantage of opportunities for economic self-improvement, in spite of the programmes which were made available there.
In the meantime, Joshua Cummings, the St James Municipal Corporation’s councillor for the Montego Bay Central division, urged the Salt Spring business owners to care for the assets they are set to receive from JSIF.
“Today is a great day for the citizens of Salt Spring and today we can always say that transformation is taking place in this community. I want to ask the members of the community to become the watchmen and watchwomen over these projects, because it would be painful if these facilities and programmes were vandalised or mistreated as they are here to serve the greater good of the community,” said Cummings.
The ICDP II initiative is dedicated to assisting business operators in Salt Spring who work in small-scale manufacturing, agriculture and livestock rearing, fishery, agro-processing, retail and food services, fashion and garment construction, furniture-making and upholstery, beauty care services, multimedia and entertainment, and car-care services.