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Justice system cheats five female Tax Office workers

It is sad that after the arrest and charge of five women who all worked at the Cross Roads branch office of Tax Administration Jamaica, they had to wait almost a decade for their collective mental freedom to be restored.

In 2017, the five were arrested and charged by operatives of the State, following a raid jointly conducted at the TAJ office by the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency, the Revenue Protection Division, and the Financial Investigations Division, in what was described as a ‘multi-million-dollar’ fraud matter. The charges included larceny as a servant, conspiracy to defraud, forgery, and falsification of records. The problem though, is that, like the general Constabulary Force, there is a tendency to arrest first and investigate after.

The sordid episode, according to the Gleaner in its coverage of the case last week, involved over 36 adjournments and an ‘abandoned’ trial, before the presiding judge, who was not named in the report, but whom I gather was Leighton Morris, a former prosecutor, decided to end the foolishness and free the women, who must all have gone through sheer hell waiting on the judicial apparatus to determine their fate.

In the end, the magistrate dismissed the matter for want of prosecution, following what was described by senior reporter Livern Barrett in the article as the ‘unreasonable time’ that it took in the matter to find an appropriate outcome.

Judge Morris did the right thing, despite a request from a member of the prosecuting team for another adjournment that would only have wasted the court’s time even further.

Over my lifetime, I have always tried my best to avoid being accused in any court matter. The length of trials alone, unless guilty pleas were offered, was a regal turnoff. In fact, having covered the courts for newspapers, I have found matters lasting for over 15 years in the courtroom before settlements are reached. That should never have been.

No matter should take more than two years to be disposed of … not even murder. The Judiciary will say that resources are not available to ensure that trials are completed within what is called a ‘reasonable’ time, but there must be a renewed effort to address that. 

In the named case, nine years is definitely too long a time to arrive at a final determination. People’s lives just cannot be put on hold for so long.

There was, obviously, no solid evidence to incriminate the women, no matter how much further the proceedings went, as the prosecution seemed impotent to stand up for the enforcement of a trial, and the matter was one that should have ended long ago.

It is natural that the women will push for lawsuits, as it seems, to me at any rate, that their constitutional rights were breached. Now for the weird part: going through such a process is likely to last far more than the nine years that they spent twiddling their thumbs, or even more time, if an appeal process becomes the next move in the seeming chess game.

It is sad that so many people, thought to be guilty or not guilty, have been sentenced to waiting for so long, and it demonstrates that the pace of growth in the race for justice is not as speedy as it ought to be.

MOCA, which was operating on a fiat from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to prosecute the case, stated mid-week that an investigation would be conducted into why the matter stretched for so long, which led the judge to dismiss it.

I’m not sure how relevant that would be now, given that MOCA was leading the prosecution, but it would be interesting to see how that turns out if the findings were released to the public. 

Leslie Campbell was the real deal

It was shocking when news emerged of the death of former legislator and attorney-at-law Leslie Campbell at age 67.

Leslie was not in the best shape in his latter days, but some of us felt he would have been able to defeat his medical challenge and spend more time with us in this life.

A lovely man was Leslie. We shared much time together – many of the discussions centred on Glengoffe High School in his St Catherine North Eastern constituency – where my now deceased mother spent 16 years as senior teacher and guidance counsellor. 

His challenges included those that often dogged the typical constituency – getting money approved to fix some of the terrible roads around, and having a reliable water supply system in place so that many of those who had to resort to washing and bathing in the river could improve that aspect of their lives. Another challenge was to significantly reduce the migration of talent, and daily commute by people from the divisions of Mount Industry, Troja, and Guy’s Hill that make up the constituency, to the Corporate Area and Spanish Town and other towns to engage or indulge in economic activities. 

Without the implementation of the several projects that he proposed, even while serving for a shade over two months as Minister Without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation after his belated appointment to the Cabinet in June 2020, he came under pressure for what some called his ‘underperformance’ and the Jamaica Labour Party machinery replaced him with Kerensia Morrison in the seat for the September 3, 2020 general election.

Opting to accept an appointment to the Senate after the election, Leslie settled for a lower role as Minister of State in the foreign affairs and foreign trade ministry. He described it to me as not a step down, but another way of serving Jamaica, and far from the daily grind of running a constituency. 

Like everyone, he had personal challenges, one in particular when a certain individual who was close to him at one time, tried to run a smear campaign against him that was intended to embarrass him, over a biological relative. He withstood the pressure and kept going until illness intervened. 

He shall remain one of my better-admired parliamentarians of all time.

Baked products hike only the start  

Most Jamaicans who live at home had better treat the announcement of an increase in the price of baked products as the beginning of further grief that will come.

The hike in the price of crude oil on the global stage is being highlighted as the main cause of increases in the prices of consumer goods so far, but there is no move yet by the Government to review some of the taxes that are already in place, such as that on fuel, in order to ease the burden, generally, on the people.

The daily and weekly shopping by consumers shows regular price increases by merchants, on anything that is seemingly linked to the almost daily global upward movement of oil.

The explanations given by merchants, real or fake, result in a nation of people having to undergo real suffering in order to purchase basic items for their existence.

I have often asked the question of how poor people survive in a tough economy like Jamaica’s. The answers have not been forthcoming. But I am on the ground every day to realise that things have grown worse than 10 years ago. The number of people seeking handouts has risen significantly. And, guess what, they really need the support.

Weeks ago, I gave a ride to a girl around age eight and her brother, 12. As I dropped them off at their gate in what people often describe as an inner-city community, I opened the trunk to give them some fruits that I had got the day before, and had ripened. Right away, the girl spotted a bag containing chicken foot – one of my favourite foods, and said ‘gimme some a dat nuh’. I asked her if she liked chicken foot (I never refer to them as feet), and she said ‘not so much’, but added that it was something that her mother would cook, as she was sure that there was nothing at the house to make dinner that afternoon into the evening.

My jaw dropped, and I mustered the courage to hold back tears. But I found an excuse not to give her the product, as I had never met her mother and was not sure if she would be happy with her daughter taking home raw food from a stranger.

I felt bad about the entire thing, and then I realised how deep the problem was. Now, prices will jump even further and will result in far more discomfort than households are experiencing.

Jamaica needs to be more serious about its food security. There have been too many warnings for the nation to continue to ignore. The war between Russia and Ukraine stepped up the scarcity of food and pushed prices sky high. Grains, like wheat, corn, barley, as well as fertilisers and other things, were affected. 

The latest, whatever you call it, that involves the United States and Israel on the one hand, and Iran on the other, has forced up not only oil, but so many other things that countries, including Jamaica, depend on.

This island cannot continue to be caught off guard forever.

No cricket action yet, just talk

Last week should have marked the end of the tenure of Courtney Francis as CEO of the Jamaica Cricket Association.

Apparently, no such thing happened, despite the JCA president, Dr Donovan Bennett confirming that a ‘restructuring’ would result in the separation of Francis.

So, now you see what masquerades as the organisation that runs cricket locally. A decision has been made, yet its implementation remains stalled, and everything has been left in limbo. 

That’s just not cricket.