Caribzone News highlight

 Jamaica

The Ministry of Health and Wellness says there are indications that social gatherings over Jamaica's Independence holiday period have played a role in the spike in COVID-19 cases the country is now experiencing.

At its weekly virtual press briefing, Chief Medical Officer Dr Jacquiline Bisasor-McKenzie pointed to the maximum incubation period of 14 days on the heels of Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton earlier disclosing that the country recorded 98 new coronavirus cases in a one-day period.

It means the resumption of schools has been pushed back to October 5, amid a worsening spike in coronavirus cases in Jamaica. Schools were closed on March 10, and were expected to resume face-to-face classes on September 7.  Jamaicans vote in general elections on September 3.

 --00—

Guyana

The Government of Guyana has announced measures geared towards easing the financial burden on citizens in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an address to the nation, newly appointed President, Dr Irfaan Ali said an agreement has been reached with the local banking sector to extend the moratorium on loan payments until the end of the year and to cut interest rates.

This means that customers with mortgages and other loans will be spared the financial burden of servicing these loans, and in turn, loans will not be classified as non-performing, in an effort to ensure that they do not default.

After a near six-month stalemate and swearing-in of Irfaan Ali as the new president of Guyana, Jamaican businesses have renewed their plans to enter the South American country, which is expected to have positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 53 per cent in 2020, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

--00—

Grenada

The Government of Grenada says it has been forced to revise downwards the revenue projects for 2020 as it severely criticized people who recently defied health measures and protocols and staged carnival activities amid the continued efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell, in a recent national radio and television broadcast, said that the magnitude of the impact of COVID-19, continues to manifest itself in different ways.

--00—

 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, 

Haiti 

Haiti's High Court of Auditors released a report slamming the fraudulent and often illegal management by various ministers and administrations of nearly US$2 billion in aid from Venezuela between 2008 and 2016.

The more than 1,000-page-long report details projects undertaken without a ‘needs assessment’ or even a cost estimate.

"The Investment projects and contracts related to the Petro-Caribe fund were not managed in accordance with the principles of efficiency and economy," the court concluded in the report.

Set up at the initiative of former president Hugo Chavez, the Petro-Caribe program allows multiple Latin American and Caribbean countries to benefit from Venezuelan loans under a system of preferential oil delivery.

With no accountability to Venezuela, the six successive Haitian administrations since 2008, have spent US$2 billion on projects, for the most part without concern for basic public funds management, the report said.

The High Court of Auditors also condemned a lack of cooperation from institutions, which it said hindered its investigative work in two initial reports, published in January and May, 2019.

For instance, the judges were unable to trace a single contract to build an industrial park and 1,500 houses outside Port-au-Prince -- the most ambitious public urban development project since the 2010 earthquake. The project ended in 2014.

But the court said that more than US$46 million were paid to a single company, Constructora ROFI SA, for the unfinished project. The company belongs to Dominican senator Felix Bautista, who was sanctioned for corruption by the United States Treasury Department in June. 2018.

--00--