Education Minister Dr. Robert Lewis
Education Minister Dr Robert Lewis has again defended his ministry stating proper due diligence was done before Lambirds Academy was issued a trade licence to operate.
Dr Lewis also maintains that no public servant has been implicated in the Lambirds Academy scam.
He told HTS News Force on (April 20) that the media is politicising the issue and has blown it out of proportion.
The education minister said, “We must not make it look like public servants don’t do their work. There are times they are going to fail…”
Dr Lewis also went on to state that he is pleased with how the matter was handled by his ministry.
According to him, the administrator of Lambirds Academy had passed the necessary regulations, before he was granted a trade licence to operate.
However, the academy did not provide the ministry with a license from the Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) Unit.
The minister declined to comment on the recent development ,where seven of the foreign students have been reported missing, since Friday (April 17). Dr. Lewis said he was not briefed on this issue.
He also defended his government’s handling of the case, stating that the students are provided with adequate lodging and plans are being made to have each of them returned home safely.
“The government is trying its best to send them back to their home country…There is nothing that was done illegally,” he said.
Previously, Dr. Lewis said Lambirds Academy has not been accredited by the Government of St Lucia. He said the document he signed, merely approved the work done by the Ministry of Education.
According to him, the determination regarding eligibility to operate is made by the technical persons in the ministry who are qualified to do so.
“That determination is conveyed to the minister only when the officer is satisfied that the institution has met all the criteria outlined in the Education Act subsection 98,” he explained.
Dr. Lewis had said this was the procedure which was applied in the case of Lambirds Academy.
The Ministry of Education has come under scrutiny via the media regarding the granting of permission to Lambirds to operate in St. Lucia.
The government has promised to conduct an independent inquiry into the scam.