‘Pay me my money!’
Uniform supplier urges JC to clear debt
WEVA NUNES, the proprietor and former contractor whose business produced millions of dollars in uniforms for the Jamaica College Old Boys’ Association (JCOBA), is calling on the school to settle its debt to her company.
While addressing a meeting Sunday hosted by JCOBA 2014-2022 executives, Nunes made known her desire: “Pay me my money!”
“Pay me every dollar that is owing to me that I can move on. There are other schools that I can go to,” she said.
Quarrels have deepened between the JCOBA and the Jamaica College Board of Governors in recent months over the alleged misappropriation of millions of dollars.
The leadership of the Old Hope Road-based school has demanded an account of how funds totalling $3.1 million, which were reportedly collected by the old boys’ association on behalf of the 232-year-old institution, were used.
Basil Jarrett, the then JCOBA president, said in January that principal Wayne Robinson “inexplicably sequestered” US$21,183.63 worth of merchandise from the association and subsequently demanded immediate payment of US$20,494.26 outstanding to the supplier.
But at Sunday’s meeting, Nunes appeared unconcerned about the internal drama that has led to a snowballing conflict between the school’s board and its alumni body.
She pleaded for the parties concerned to address the impasse, adding that she had not yet given her lawyer the go-ahead to sue the school.
“I do not want to have to be pulling Jamaica College in any more mud than what it is in. I’m asking you, please,” Nunes said.
“My mother taught me and my grandmother taught me not to wash my dirty linen in public, and I’m trying my very best not to do so where this is concerned, but I’m leaving in the hands of the Jamaica College managers, whoever is in charge, to look within yourselves to say, ‘Is this how you wish to treat someone, one of your servants who has served you over 10 years, who has given to the school for 10 years?’”
Attempts to contact Robinson late Sunday were unsuccessful.
Jarrett, who is now immediate past president, thanked Nunes for the restraint she has shown in the matter.
“Ms Nunes has been threatening legal action for some time, and I have been asking her to hold on because I have too much on my plate right now to get drawn into anything else, and I just want to thank her for extending that courtesy to me,” said Jarrett.
During the meeting, Collin Greenland, former treasurer of the JCOBA, expressed displeasure over the allegations.
“I see no evidence of any impropriety. I live my life with honesty and transparency. I will not be a part of that, even if it happened without my knowledge,” he said.