HAJ board ‘needed to take action urgently’
Deeper probe may follow managing director’s sacking
Published:Tuesday | November 8, 2022 | 12:10 AM
The board of the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) may engage other state authorities in a deepened probe after findings of an internal audit at the agency that have led to the sacking of Managing Director Dr Patrick Thelwell.
Minister with responsibility for information, Robert Morgan, told The Gleaner Monday evening that there were “some very concerning findings in the audit as it relates to how particular processes were managed while the gentleman was in charge of the agency”.
Morgan said that based on the findings of an internal audit, the board of the agency took the decision to terminate Thelwell’s contract with effect from November 4.
However, Morgan made it clear that the firing of Thelwell was not an indication that he was involved in any illicit activity. He noted that as head of the entity, the buck stopped with Thelwell.
“I am not attaching any wrongdoing to him, but he is in charge of the organisation,” he said.
He said that the findings of the audit would be made public at a later date.
Morgan said that the information unearthed by internal auditors may have to be escalated to the auditor general for her to conduct an audit of the agency.
“This was an internal audit that was done by the organisation and the board assessed the findings and reached the conclusion that they needed to take action urgently.”
Doreen Prendergast, chief technical director in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, has been seconded to the agency as interim managing director until a successor for Thelwell is recruited.
Thelwell’s phone rang without answer Monday evening as The Gleaner sought comment from him.
Attempts to reach the chairman of the HAJ, Norman Brown, were also unsuccessful as calls to his cell phone went unanswered.
The HAJ falls under the portfolio of the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, headed ultimately by Prime Minister Andrew Holness.
At a post-Cabinet press briefing late last month, Morgan told journalists that the primary objective of the agency was to reduce the debt that the entity had racked up.
He said that the Government has reduced the debt that the HAJ owed to the National Housing Trust (NHT) from $3.5 billion in 2016 to $500 million.
“In order for the HAJ to become properly viable and to fulfil its mandate, we have to remove that debt that it owes to NHT, and we have been very successful in doing that,” Morgan said in October of the NHT.