The Access to information act was used by RJR to obtain phone bills for government minister as well as their Junior ministers and the numbers were jaw dropping.
The total cellular phone bills for the minister and state minister for the period July 2013 – June this year was a whopping , mind boggling $5m !
The top four phone bills were as follows.
- Arnaldo Brown $1.06m ( June 2014 bill was $430,000)
- Phillip Paulwell $930,000
- Bobby Pickersgill ~ $800,000
- Dr Fenton Ferguson $734,000
So our cash strapped government, which cannot find money to attend to the most basic needs of the country, continues to spend recklessly on the things them deem important, while the population continues to suffer in silence .
I would love to hear an explanation from the Prime Minister of this country, why a poor country like Jamaica is spending so much on cellular phone calls .
To avoid roaming charges when I travel to the USA for example, I simply get a USA number and have persons call me on this and in that way I pay nothing for roaming charges.
I am sure if they look hard enough they can get international phone plans for a fraction of what we( yes we the tax payers) are doling out for these minister phone call.
I am sure one of the explanations that will be coming is ” The JLP in there 4 years spent $ Xm so by comparison, we are doing better.
The PNP government continues to demonstrate a lack of fiscal responsibility in these tough times, while asking all of us to hold strain, now tell me how unfair and how unjust is that request in light of these findings.
Warren's Blog 
i have the magic jack application installed on my smartphone and so all calls received while I am in the USA is on my USA number from Magic Jack
Before I leave Jamaica , I disable data while roaming so I will not have to pay for data charges.
I connect any any free WIFI that is available and make any calls that needs to be made, which requires fairly long talk time.
Roaming charges are so expensive and one has to pay to receive and make calls
So I keep my cellphone bill as low as possible as I have no taxpayer to have it do it for me.
We have an explanation for Mr Brown phone bill.
We have been told that MR Brown has responsibilities for Diasapora Affairs and as such he is in constant contact with folks overseas. In June a new program was launched, which was spearheaded by Mr Brown, which explains why his bills were so high.
AJ Nicholson, when asked said he would have to launch and investigation, which is a clear sign that he has no idea what is going on in his ministry.
Mr Nicolson low phone bill may be indicate of his low work rate in the Ministry, hence the reason I have asked for his removal.
I received this via email
“Jay it come like you have goat mouth, because as soon as you try big up a PNP man something bad happen to that persons
You big up Fenton, then soon after Chikv showed up Fenton, next you say Arnaldo Brown was credible and next thing you know he comes up with an incredible phone bill.
I tell you what, no badda big up no more PNP people, keep on lashing them as you seem to do so often.”
What can I say ???
Is it important to have a constant number. When you have a small number, you can manage it. When people all over have to contact you, then it becomes harder to distribute your new roaming number. When your availability or lack of it can make or break a contract and can cost millions.
Maybe what can be done is to have a pool of phones that are used while roaming