No to funds

We have no money for bursaries.

That was the essence of the message sent back to the Ministry of Education by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs to a request for supplementary funds to cover the bursaries it promised University of the West Indies (UWI) students more than three months ago.

Well-placed sources in the Ministry of Finance told the SUNDAY SUN on Thursday that earlier this week an official of that ministry, on instructions from his superiors, dispatched a letter to the top brass at the education ministry’s headquarters at the Elsie Payne Complex turning down the request for funds.

According to the sources, officials at the education ministry were also advised that if they wished to proceed with the  bursaries, which apparently had not been previously discussed, they should look for some other programmes of spending within the ministry to cut so funds can be reallocated.

The source also told the SUNDAY SUN that the dispatch from the ministry headed by Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler to that led by his counterpart, Minister of Education Ronald Jones, also admonished education officials to desist from the practice of making any public commitment about spending before first finding out if the finance ministry had the wherewithal to cover it.