PAC moves to cite UHWI CEO for contempt as court, crime and investment stories lead Tuesday newscast

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said Tuesday it is treating University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) Chief Executive Officer Fitzgerald Mitchell as being in contempt of Parliament after he failed to attend hearings, including one appearance ordered by summons. The committee had called Mitchell, former CEO Kevin Allen and former board chairman Wayne Chai Chong as it examined procurement and management issues raised in the Auditor General’s report. Allen and Chai Chong appeared; Mitchell did not.

PAC members argued that penalties under the Senate and House of Representatives powers-and-privileges law are too weak, noting the current fine is J$200. They said that level of punishment cannot deter senior officials from ignoring parliamentary oversight, and one member said Mitchell should resign or be removed. PAC Chairman Julian Robinson also said the committee has now received fuller records on UHWI’s past CEO recruitment exercise, after concerns that an earlier two-paragraph submission did not reflect the depth of the process.

In the Home Circuit Court, a fraud officer from National Commercial Bank testified in the Clansman trial that two cards examined during the Zamari McKay probe were NCB cards and were not altered. He said account records linked one card to accused Carlos Williams and the other to McKay, whose body was previously reported found on Lakespen Main Road. Owen Billings, Germaine Clark and Williams are charged under counts tied to robbery with aggravation and McKay’s murder.

In St. James Parish Court, Constable Andrew Wilson, charged in the killing of Latoya Bulgin in Granville, was granted bail in the sum of J$1 million with reporting requirements, surrender of travel documents and a stop order. The case is set to return on July 10. Separately, police said no charge had yet been laid against a 15-year-old in custody after a fatal stabbing near the Port Antonio bus park involving Jeremy Tarzen Ferguson.

At the Jamaica Diaspora Conference in Montego Bay, State Minister Delano Seiveright urged overseas Jamaicans to expand from remittances into direct ownership and investment, including land, businesses and productive assets. In Kingston and St. Andrew, the municipal corporation issued a 14-day removal notice for an unauthorized structure on a protected gully reserve near Patrick Drive. Meanwhile, Scotia Group Jamaica said its planned share buyback and delisting proposal is intended to improve efficiency, while maintaining its long-term commitment to Jamaica.