Education Ministry’s Spending On Consultants
On Friday [Apr.13] in the House of Assembly, Education Minister Dame Jennifer Smith responded to Parliamentary Questions posed by Shadow Education Minister Dr Grant Gibbons about the Education Ministry’s spending on consultants.
Dr Gibbons asked: “Would the Honourable Minister please provide this Honourable House with a list of all consultants hired and working in the period from April 1, 2011 to the present for the Ministry of Education,” and asked what their total compensation was.
The replies given covered five companies with services ranging from provision of programme testing materials, syllabus, assessment and training; screening of staff applicants as well as school security including CCTV installation.
The replies by Dame Jennifer were:
- CTB McGraw-Hill – Provision of programme testing materials and test scoring and reporting services – $736,053
- G.E.T. Ltd. – School Security, including the installation of CCTV cameras – $2,603,398
- University of Cambridge – Provision of Syllabus, Assessment & training for the curriculum – $198,394
- Expertise – Working with school principals to facilitate the hiring of teachers and screening of applicants – $16,195
- Marva Allen – Provision of support for middle schools and students transitioning from middle to senior school – $13,370
The responses to the Parliamentary Questions are below [PDF here] click ‘Fullscreen’ for greater clarity:
Is the Opposition, or the Public allowed to ask who are the shareholders and ultimate beneficial owners of G.E.T. Limited as 86 Reid St is clearly a nominee/mailing address.
Last question………….when is the Election please?
Why couldn’t govt buy their own cameras and instal them themselves????? Something is not right here.
2M on security? bummer….I guess the students that go to school to learn do need protection these days…..saddening
$2.6M paid to GET Security vs. $198K paid to Cambridge. You can now see why the Public system is failing!!
This is very very telling.
Where’s the BB texting addict we saw at the dump fire press conference?
Or is he a W&E consultant?
Gibbons should ask for the job descriptions of the top heavy, expensive persons (non teaching)who run the Ministry.
The public would he shocked at the duplication and waste.
typo–*be* shocked
All I know is that it’s time for this government to be fired! Vote OBA so we can get rid of this failure of a headache.
I’m with you Cancer!!!!
Who owns GET Security?
We also invite you to contact our President, Mr. Kevin Smith
via phone at 441-296-9332 or by email at Kevin@G.E.T.security.bm or
CFO, Mrs. Terry Ann Smith at 441-296-9332 or
email at G.E.T. Limited Terry@G.E.T.security.bm
COO, Mr. George Jackson at 441-29 69332
HMMMMM ???
I would have aske some extra questions:
1. What was the business case for employing the consultants – and the benefits for Bermuda?
2. Were the contracts tendered – particularly the security contract?
3. What measures were/are in place to tell if the money was well spent?
4. Let us see the results.
GET===Granite Enforcement Team.
Perhaps the middle initial stands for you-know-who?!
Yeah that guy with thehone at the fore, was a ministry of education consultant to do with mathematics . What about the payments or expenses for Avis Glaze?
Yeah that guy with the phone texting at the fire was described as a ministry of education consultant to do with mathematics . What about the payments or expenses for Avis Glaze?
@Gvt Mechanic
1. What was the business case for employing the consultants – and the benefits for Bermuda?
The answer is simple : if someone don’t have a clue in what their doing then you have to brong someone in and pay them as they direct and show you what to do. That’s why PLP spend so much on consultants since they first took office. They dont know how to do nothing right without spending our money on outside help. Poor PLP! Poor Bermuda! Poor us….
I don’t completely disagree Cancer, but some consultants are brought in to teach others and then leave, or just to do a specific project which doesn’t warrant a full time permanent employee – and yes, sometimes it’s because there are not the knowlegde and skills within Gvt. I’ve seen good ones and bad ones in my time, but apart from one current one, I have no idea what the others are doing or whether they are adding anything good.
So – yes, have consultants help us but only if there are long term benefits for a short term payment!
My question is G.E.T. Ltd is a vendor in our schools providing a service with a government contract, why would someone call them a consultant and expose their company for doing their contractual job, there are other security companies that are not listed that are providing a service to the Department of education i.e. fire alarms, intruder alarms and monitoring of the alarms. My question is why aren’t all vendors that provide a service to government not exposed. I smell a RAT, that company (G.E.T. Ltd) should take legal actions.