{"id":20284,"date":"2022-01-20T21:10:08","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T02:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=20284"},"modified":"2022-01-20T17:34:31","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T22:34:31","slug":"why-heart-nsta-trust-chairman-edward-gabbidon-resigned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/why-heart-nsta-trust-chairman-edward-gabbidon-resigned\/","title":{"rendered":"Why HEART\/NSTA Trust Chairman Edward Gabbidon resigned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jamaica<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

EART\/NSTA Trust Board Chairman Edward Gabbidon has resigned in what he has noted is a move not to allow individuals, for political gain, to\u00a0use him as a distraction from the valuable work of the Trust.<\/p>\n

Gabbidon resigned on Friday last week in a letter he sent to Prime Minister Andrew Holness.<\/p>\n

The relationship between a company for which Gabbidon is the chief executive officer, Sycon, and the HEART\/NSTA Trust, has come under scrutiny in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

In his letter of resignation, Gabiddon noted that Sycon has been doing business with HEART for well over a decade,\u00a0across successive administrations,\u00a0and prior to his service as chairman of the board of the\u00a0Trust.<\/p>\n

Gabbidon said during a recent debate in Parliament, a report submitted to the PAAC was referenced and quoted a statement from a member of\u00a0HEART\/NSTA Trust\u2019s legal team.<\/p>\n

The member of the legal team was quoted as saying, \u201c\u2026to date I have not been furnished with a copy of a Declaration of Interest nor have I had sight of same. I am, therefore, not in a position to comment on the scope that said Declaration covers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabbidon stated in his resignation letter that that statement was subsequently used to suggest and assert that he did not declare interest in a company with which he is associated.<\/p>\n

But he says that is false and furnished the prime minister with correspondence supporting his insistence that he did declare interest in Sycon.<\/p>\n

According to Gabbidon, the facts are that Sycon, of which he is the chief executive officer, has been doing business with the Government of Jamaica across administrations and specifically with HEART\/NSTA Trust for more than a decade on an ongoing basis.\u00a0Gabbidon said, on accepting appointment to the board of HEART\/NSTA Trust in 2018 out of a desire to serve his country, he fulfilled the requirement to declare affiliation and interest.<\/p>\n

Gabbidon told Prime Minister Holness that the value of the procurements involving HEART and Sycon were below the threshold that would require board approval.\u00a0He said, therefore, he would not have been called up on to make any decisions regarding contracting with the company.<\/p>\n

Gabbidon said, too, that he was not a member of the procurement subcommittee of the board and would not have participated in any decision regarding procurement at that level.<\/p>\n

The former HEART board chairman noted that Sycon is a 27-year-old industry leader in technology, and, in many instances, the company provides products and services for vendors that require\u00a0specialised, and specific certification and training to implement.<\/p>\n

He reiterated that the specific procurement around which a query was raised was aborted and not issued.<\/p>\n

Gabbidon reiterated, in his resignation letter, that whenever arrangements with Sycon came up for discussion at HEART, he would recuse\u00a0himself to allow the transparent examination of the issue. He, said,\u00a0all procurement guidelines were adhered to by the organisation.<\/p>\n

The former Heart\/NSTA Trust chairman told the prime minister that his motivation to serve was to give back to his country and to create opportunities for young people to access training and character development.<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking at the bigger picture and not wanting to become a distraction from the important work that the board is undertaking at HEART\/NSTA Trust, and having regard to certain changes in my\u00a0personal circumstances, I wish to now advise that I will not be available to continue serving the board of the HEART\/NSTA Trust,\u201d Gabbidon told the prime minister.<\/p>\n

The former HEART\/NSTA Trust chairman said he wishes to express his gratitude for the opportunity to serve Jamaica, which he described as an invaluable expression of confidence in him.<\/p>\n

A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) said\u00a0Holness thanked Gabbidon for his service to the board and Jamaica.<\/p>\n

It also said a new chairman of the board of the HEART\/NSTA Trust will be named shortly.<\/p>\n

\u201cA strategic review of the Trust is currently underway following the report of the Commission for the Transformation of Education report which was delivered earlier this year,\u201d OPM said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

More\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image: pexels-thirdman<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamaica \u00a0 EART\/NSTA Trust Board Chairman Edward Gabbidon has resigned in what he has noted is a move not to allow individuals, for political gain, to\u00a0use him as a distraction…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":17350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[250],"tags":[240,124],"class_list":["post-20284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-education","tag-jamaica"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-thirdman-5060979-scaled-e1646951879770.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-5ha","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20281,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/hearts-gabbidon-bows-out-over-conflict-of-interest-pressure\/","url_meta":{"origin":20284,"position":0},"title":"HEART’s Gabbidon bows out over conflict-of-interest pressure","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"January 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica \u00a0 Edward Gabbidon has resigned as board chairman of the HEART\/NSTA Trust amid concerns about his position and the relationship his company, SynCon Technologies, has with the troubled skills training agency. It comes months into a\u00a0Sunday Gleaner\u00a0investigation that brought the issue to light and just days after HEART's portfolio\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pexels-sora-shimazaki-5668481-scaled-e1654222643649.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pexels-sora-shimazaki-5668481-scaled-e1654222643649.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pexels-sora-shimazaki-5668481-scaled-e1654222643649.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/pexels-sora-shimazaki-5668481-scaled-e1654222643649.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20286,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/opposition-raps-pm-on-heart-nsta\/","url_meta":{"origin":20284,"position":1},"title":"Opposition raps PM on HEART\/NSTA","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"January 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica \u00a0 THE Opposition says Prime Minister Andrew Holness made a bad decision in appointing Edward Gabbidon to chair the board of the Human Employment and Resource Training \/National Service Training Agency (HEART\/NSTA) Trust, and made it worse by expressing confidence in the now-resigned chairman in Parliament last week. 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