The acting permanent secretary in Jamaica’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Information is more connected than previously known to the private tourism school that reportedly received some of the biggest allocations from two multi-billion dollar government programs she used to oversee.

18º North has obtained a copy of a 2015 application form for the Dr. Grace McLean Scholarship tenable at Western Hospitality Institute (WHI) at a time when she had direct oversight of one of the programs as Chief Education Officer (CEO), and WHI was a beneficiary.

The revelation raises another round of questions as to just how impartial the ongoing probe by the Auditor General’s Department (AudGen) can be when Dr. McLean, now as head of entity, will also have some control over the evidence presented and the responses given to the AudGen.

Before now, education junior minister, Robert Morgan, had maintained that the positions of chief education officer and permanent secretary play a role in all programs at the ministry, and if the government begins removing persons each time a probe or audit occurs then “there will be nobody left in government to do the work.”

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