The Universal Service Fund is seeking to correct misinformation currently in the public domain regarding its operations and the inclusion of representatives from the major telecommunications companies on its board of management.
Firstly, the Agency is reiterating that it submits to audits by the Auditor General bi-annually (every two years), in keeping with the Public Bodies Management and Accountability Act.
The Auditor General last probed the organization’s operations in 2016, and as such, the Agency is now due to be audited.
It must be emphasized that the USF welcomes such audits as they allow the entity to identify areas for improvement, so it can better serve the Jamaican public in the execution of its mandate.
Secondly, the USF’s Board of Management up to the 2017/18 financial year included representatives from both major telecommunications companies. Those posts were vacated upon the resignations of the individuals from their respective posts, and by extension, from the telecommunications industry.
The USF would also like to remind the public that contrary to assertions being promulgated in the public sphere, the Chairman does not appoint the board of Management, nor does he have the power to call for any board member’s resignation. The Agency therefore finds any assertions of a ‘deliberate attempt’ to remove the representatives of the island’s major telecommunications companies as baseless and duplicitous.