EDITORIAL - PM's intervention a good step on JDIP

Maybe it is that Prime Minister Bruce Golding and other members of his Cabinet do not share the same construct, or use the same measure, for accountability and transparency in government.

Take the case of the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), which is the scheme under which US$350 million borrowed from China is to be used to build and repair roads, bridges, drains and culverts and which people fear was being morphed into a pork barrel to fête the ruling party faithful ahead of next year's general election.

For several months, the parliamentary Opposition has been complaining that the choice of roads to be repaired under JDIP was being done in a less than transparent or fair manner.

Others, including this newspaper, have questioned some of the choice of projects under JDIP, such as the US$65 million, or J$5.6 billion, being spent to do fancy things with the Palisadoes road to the Norman Manley International Airport, which will have little impact on traffic flow or economic spin-off for the capital, or Jamaica, more broadly.

But despite all the complaints, the transport minister, Mike Henry, and Mr Audley Shaw, who is wont to send his financial hounds to audit high-school tuck shops, insisted that the JDIP process was transparent and that taxpayers have got, and would continue to get, value for money.

Indeed, both men were particularly insistent on JDIP's openness and quality when it recently came to light that a one-kilometre road being built in Mr Shaw's North East Manchester constituency would cost J$800 million, or more than J$20,000 an inch.

Ridiculing the critics, Mr Shaw announced that he would organise a tour of the road, with Mr Henry in tow, to which the press had an open invitation.

We doubt whether that tour will now take place, or if it does, it will make sense - for Mr Shaw and, particularly, Mr Henry.

Speaking at a ruling party rally on Saturday, the prime minister let on that he, too, had concerns that JDIP was perhaps not being managed with the requisite integrity.

Mr Golding said he had called in the National Works Agency for information on what was being done "and what was explained to me does not, in my view, satisfy the bar that I feel must be put in place to ensure that we can account for every penny that is spent".

Independent consultants

We applaud Mr Golding for this public admission of concern, which is at odds with the declared sentiments of senior Cabinet ministers.

We support, too, his decision to engage independent consultants to quantify the scale and quality of work of contractors before they are paid. The process of hiring these consultants must be transparent.

But even as we hail this move by Mr Golding, we do not believe that the prime minister has gone far enough, and do not admit his reason for not doing so.

Mr Golding explained that the Chinese company, China Harbour, is the overall contractor for JDIP and it is that company which engages subcontractors. The Government, therefore, has no control over who they hire.

That process, we insist, provides loopholes for untoward behaviour at the expense of taxpayers. It would be incredulous of the administration to suppose it can't be fixed. Mr Golding has, therefore, made an important first step.

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