EDITORIAL - Probe Palisadoes too

Prime Minister Andrew Holness' decision to wrest the Government's flagship project, the weightily named Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), from the grasp of Works Minister Mike Henry confirms that he is concerned about the messy revelations in the special audit tabled last week.

That Patrick Wong, head of the implementing vehicle, the National Works Agency (NWA), was shown the door suggests that the prime minister wants to define his governance by accountability. But he must do more.

In its report on JDIP, the Auditor General's Department left us with an image of a 21st-century bullet train running at high speed on a badly maintained, narrow-gauge track designed for a 19th-century locomotive. Further, the track is without crossing signals and other safety features have been dismantled.

The inevitable outcome is disaster - as Mrs Pamela Monroe Ellis discovered in the case of JDIP, a J$36-billion programme to build and repair roads, bridges and drains, financed primarily with Chinese money. When such disasters occur, prudent people inspect other lines. In that context, we believe an investigation of the management of the Palisadoes project is important.

We should, perhaps, be reminded of what the auditor general found with JDIP: essentially, the NWA behaving like a sailor on shore leave.

Contracts were handed out without competitive bids, even when the rules required them. In some circumstances, it mattered little if subcontractors met the criteria that the NWA itself set.

The NWA appeared also to often forget its obligation, or just didn't bother, to inspect work it contracted and assigned on behalf of the Jamaican taxpayer who, ultimately, will have to repay the US$340 million borrowed from the China Export-Import Bank. There is no certainty that taxpayers have got value for money

Worse, the Ministry of Transport and Works was apparently oblivious of the bacchanal - if it was not part of it. The ministry had to be reminded of "its fiduciary responsibility to ensure that the Government and, by extension, taxpayers obtain value for every dollar spent".

Audit Palisadoes project

Therein lies the case for an audit of Minister Henry's showpiece Palisadoes initiative, which is officially called a shoreline-rehabilitation project. It is an expensive bit of work, costing US$65 million (J$5.26 billion). Similar to JDIP, that money is borrowed from China, and the same Chinese company that is overseeing JDIP has the contract for the Palisadoes project.

The project area is a little over two and a half kilometres long on which runs the road to the Norman Manley International Airport. It helps to enclose and protect Kingston Harbour.

The airport notwithstanding, the road is relatively lightly trafficked. Occasional significant hurricanes shift protective dunes on the eastern side, causing minor dislocations that are quickly fixed. There was a proposed solution to the problem at 40 per cent of the cost of what is now being spent. Instead, the road is being widened, lifted and many other fancy bits added.

Notwithstanding the claims that the project represents an investment for the protection of Kingston Harbour and the city, this newspaper insists that this spending is an egregious misallocation of resources in the country's economic circumstances. There is much infrastructure that might have benefited without this creation of a monument.

Beyond that, the Palisadoes project has been dogged by controversy, including myriad complaints by subcontractors over payments.

Prime Minister Holness should, therefore, advise Mrs Monroe Ellis to turn her attention to Palisadoes.