Finally, Utech pays PATH grant to student

Dear Claudienne:

I am a graduate of the University of Technology (Utech), Jamaica.

I was approved for a PATH grant of $100,000 by the Ministry of Labour in 2019 and the ministry then paid over the grant to Utech.

When I got the grant I had one module (course) left to complete my degree. Utech extracted the payment for the module from the grant and I should have received the balance.

I applied to Utech for the balance of the grant and in October 2019 I was informed that it would be paid to me.

Since that time I have been waiting on Utech to release the funds but up to now (November 30, 2020) I have not got the money.

The feedback I have got from Utech is that emails on the matter were sent to the National Commercial Bank Jamaica (NCBJ), querying the chargeback.

On Friday, October 25, 2019 I received the following email from Utech:

“Please be advised that your refund request has been approved.

Subsequently, we have requested that our bank, the National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited, process your refund to the credit card with which your payment was made.

You will receive further communication as soon as the National Commercial Bank confirms the completion of the process.

The details of your request are as follows:

Request Amount: $66,400.00 Request Date: 5/13/2019 Request Status: Approved: “Chargeback pending”

However, on contacting NCB I was told that their investigations revealed that the bank was not aware of the matter or of such a request.

It is almost two years now and I believe that I have exercised enough patience and that a matter such as this should not have taken such a long time to be resolved. I am kindly seeking your assistance in any way possible.

RS

Dear RS

On contacting an associate vice-president at Utech about your concerns Tell Claudienne was informed by email, dated December 7, 2020, as follows:

“We are working on her refund. I will update her shortly on the status of her refund.”

Tell Claudienne sees that you have now received the refund from Utech, as you sent the column the following email on January 6, 2020:

“I finally received the refund on Monday, January 4, 2021 of this week. Thank you for your assistance — I really do appreciate it.

Continue doing the wonderful job you are doing and God bless!”

We wish you all the best.