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Rosemarie Shaw

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Family connections

Investigations have revealed that the current recipients of homes in the Eastern St Thomas division are connected to the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and have received housing due to such connections. It was recently alleged that Keith James, one of the beneficiaries of the NSHP is related to the current councillor of the Dalvey Division, Michael McLeod. In recent months McLeod has publicly denied any relationship with James who was said to be his uncle. James in an interview with a DIGITIMES reporter also denied any relationship with McLeod. After further investigation, it was revealed that the allegations were true.

Euphemia Marriot, a relative of James and McLeod who lives on the same land, told DIGITIMES that McLeod and James are cousins, and their mothers are sisters.

Maxine Marriot, a resident of Dalvey told DIGITIMES that she is related to both McLeod and James. Though admitting that she could not confirm which member of the family owns the land, she confirmed that the land that James’ house is built on is owned by the family.

James, whose house was destroyed in a hurricane some years ago, lived in a rented house. In an interview with a DIGITIMES reporter, James said that he did not apply for a house with the MP for Eastern St Thomas. He was only told two years ago that he would get a house but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, those plans were put on pause.

In June of 2022, he was again approached, and construction started for his new house. Sixty-four-year-old James is unemployed but has adult children residing in the United States. He received a one-bedroom house built close to his aunt, McCleod’s mother.

The People’s National Party (PNP) Chairman for Eastern St Thomas, Rosemarie Shaw, has expressed outrage at the unethical administration of the NSHP. In response to questions about the house delivered at Dalvey, she said, “I am not saying that he is not deserving of it but I’m saying the one house that came to the area…can’t with limited government funding just go on a frolic of your own and spending it on your relatives.” Shaw expressed that people who were members of the PNP are at a disadvantage because of that political affiliation.

Lavern Robinson is a recent fire victim in the vicinity of James’ newly built house. He currently lives in and pays rent for the same house that James moved out of after receiving his (James) house from the NSHP. When asked if he has contacted the councillor for help, he responded, “dem nah go help mi…cah mi a PNP.” Robinson earns a living by burning coal and is now seeking housing assistance from Food for the Poor. As the largest charitable organization in Jamaica, Food for the Poor partners with churches, and private, and non-governmental organizations to provide emergency relief in areas such as food, housing, water and sanitation, among others. However, Robinson laments that he is in a disadvantaged position because of his political alignment.

Keith James

Dawn Cargill

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Contacting the government

Attempts to contact Dr Michelle Charles, MP for Eastern St Thomas regarding the application and needs assessment process were unsuccessful. On different occasions, calls and visits were made to the constituency office. The office assistant who wished not to be named told DIGITIMES that Charles normally visits on a Thursday, and she would be the only person with the necessary information about the programme. For the following four consecutive Thursdays calls were made to the office, but Charles was always allegedly in Parliament or simply not in the office. During the final attempt, about a month later, the DigiTimes reporter visited the office and asked for information regarding the NSHP. The office assistant who seemingly had forgotten our prior interaction provided a document listing the requirements for each applicant.

More recent attempts were made to contact Charles. Calls were made to her office in March 2023 and an email was sent to the email address on her business card. Charles has not returned the call nor responded to the email.

Though Charles was unreachable, DIGITIMES was able to interview the councillor for the Seaforth division in Western St Thomas, Joan Spencer. After Spencer was told that the interview was about the NSHP she asked to make a call before responding to any questions as she did not know anything about the programme. Spencer called a woman she referred to as Donna to confirm details that she was allowed to give about the programme. After the phone call, Spencer responded that councillors could make recommendations to the MP about people in need of assistance and repeated that she does not know much about the programme.

Spencer was also asked questions about the application process to which she responded, “I would assume that there is a process but as far as the process goes, I would not know.” However, Spencer later admitted that she has referred a woman who lost her house in a fire to the MP for assistance.

According to information from the MEGJC, there is currently one house under construction in the Western St Thomas constituency, represented by MP James Robertson. When Spencer was contacted again to ask about the house under construction, she responded that she did not know about it and possibly it was not in her division.

Several attempts were also made to contact the MEGJC and Richard Cargill who is the acting project director for the NSHP. During November calls were made to the office but the phone was unanswered. On November 24, 2022, a DIGITIMES reporter spoke to Heather Campbell who provided the contact information for Cargill’s office. The call was answered by Warren Kidd who said Cargill was currently unavailable, but he (Kidd) would take a message and contact information to have Cargill return the call. Cargill is yet to return the call. All subsequent calls to the office were unanswered.

On December 21, upon visiting the MEGJC website, it was noticed that all content regarding the NSHP had been removed. Another attempt was made to contact Cargill to ask questions about the removal of the webpage contents. A woman who identified herself as Miss Rule answered the phone and confirmed that Cargill was in the office but was unavailable to answer questions at the time.

The MEGJC website has now been restored with information on the implementation modalities and the “legislative instruments” governing the implementation of the programme.

An Access to Information request for a list of approved and pending applications was sent to the ministry in October. Twenty-eight days later an email was sent from the ministry requesting a 30-day extension due to the bulk of information that was requested. That 60-day period ended on December 26, 2022, but up until January 17, no further information was received regarding the request for that information. On January 18, 2023, a document was received from the MEGJC detailing that some $8.5 billion were spent on a total of 118 houses built under the NSHP as of November 1, 2022.