P.J. Discloses Enquiry costs.
44.6 Million Jamaican dollars (about 1 million U.S. dollars) were spent on the West Kingston Commission of Enquiry! This was disclosed by our Prime Minister in Parliament yesterday.
The Commission of Enquiry was established by the Prime Minister following the the loss of 27 lives in gun battles from July 7-10 last year in West Kingston.
The commission heard evidence from September 2001 to April of this year. It was chaired by a Canadian, Justice Julius Isaac. He received a payment of Ja.$700,334. His living expenses which include accomodation at the Courtleigh Hotel totalling Ja.$479,000 takes the total cost for having him at the enquiry, to Ja.$1,227,147. It is pointed out that he was not paid a salary as the Canadian government continued to pay him while he was here. He did, however, receive payment of Canadian $130/day for the total 184 days of the enquiry. Now, his remuneration, in all honesty, does not seem too extravagant to me. The other two Commissioners, Dr. Hyacinthe Ellis and Dr. Garnet Brown received approximately Ja.$3 and Ja.$2 million respectively for their work.
Velma Hylton,Q.C., Counsel for the Commission, received a total of Ja.$4.795 million for her labour. I won’t bother to go any further.
What did this enquiry prove? As far as I remember, no one was found responsible for the loss of 27 lives, many of whom I am sure were innocent civilians. Lambs slaughtered in my opinion. It seems to me, the only people who benefitted from this whole fiasco, were the legal figureheads. Enough, enough, is all I’ll say. Enough of the bullshit! Maybe I should have done law……..P.S. (1 Million U.S. dollars may not seem like a lot of money to my foreign readers, but remember, we are a poor nation, and at the end of all of this, no rass justice has been done the way I see it!) The world is really not round indeed, is it?!?!
July 31st, 2002 at 3:05 pm Things will never change…sick of J’can politics and overpayments for work that amounts to naught!!
July 31st, 2002 at 8:04 pm The money is one thing… Remember, if you will, that the police went into Tivoli Gardens and held them to seige for 4 - 5 days. They were witnessed sticking M-16’s out of windows and firing with the gun on automatic fire, and they weren’t even looking at their target. This was seen on National television. The real problem is not really the money spent, although that was awful. The problem was that after all that time and money, they found that the police weren’t responsible for a blasted thing, and they didn’t even seem to test the bullets to see if they were fired by Police weapons. They did note that one bullet was of the same caliber as that fired by police weapons, but they didn’t test it, instead saying that the police MAY have been responsible in that instance… The whole thing is a cover up, I tell you! Fire bun fi Adams and his Murderation Squad.
July 31st, 2002 at 9:31 pm Thanks for the additional info MB, what a disgrace! They should be ashamed to call themselves the Police - they are no better than common criminals! What will ever become of poor Ja, dare I ask?
July 31st, 2002 at 10:20 pm Yes Mad Bull, I fully agree with you. I did alude to it in the post that NO ONE was found responsible. Perhaps, it should have read that THE POLICE were not found to be at fault. Pardon the rather serious omission!!!!
August 2nd, 2002 at 1:49 pm What an obscene waste of money by a nation that has so little to spare >:(