An Auditor General’s review of post–Hurricane Melissa spending has warned that bypassing procurement rules, even in emergencies, weakens accountability and opens the door to corruption. The report found blurred lines between ministers and the civil service, unlawful initiation of purchases, and poor asset tracking, all of which undermine safeguards designed to protect taxpayers’ funds. While urgency demanded swift action, the auditor general stressed that existing laws already allow flexibility in disasters and must be followed to prevent abuse, ensure transparency, and preserve public trust.

Trash the rules, then

Jamaica Gleaner/8 Feb 2026

THE URGENCY i mposed by poststorm relief notwithstanding, there was nothing inevitable about the breach of the Government’s procurement rules, as identified by the auditor general in her real-time review of some of the Government’s purchases after Hurricane Melissa.

If anything, Pamela Monroe Ellis’ audit revealed three facts:

● that the public bureaucracy seems immune to learning from history, so consistently does the same thing with predictably bad outcomes;

● that at the time of Hurricane Melissa, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) had so lost its way as to be confused about its role, and that its operating and accountability systems were badly broken or severely thrashed; and

● that the clear and deliberately crafted lines between the political executive and the permanent civil service had become blurred or intentionally trampled upon.

The result is a diminution of national accountability and the opening of space for people with malintent. That this may not have happened in the present case is beyond the point.

There is no disclaiming the severity of Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm that slammed into western Jamaica, and the emergency situation it created. The hurricane caused nearly US$9 billion in damage, left several thousand people homeless and severely disrupted telecommunications systems in the western third of the island.

In these circumstances, the Government had to act quickly to provide emergency relief, which also meant having the capacity to communicate in the affected region.

With respect to the latter, the communications component, the Government spent J$12.12 million to purchase 200 kits to provide Internet connectivity via Starlink, the low-latency satellite network owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

PROCUREMENT

While ODPEM paid for the devices, having been directed to do so, the procurement was not initiated by that agency. That was done by the energy and technology minister, Daryl Vaz, acting in his capacity as co-chair of the hurricane’s Relief and Recovery Oversight Committee (RROC).

Mr Vaz’s letter to ODPEM instructing it to pay was two days after the date of the supplier’s invoices, a day before the delivery of the devices to the police for distribution. It was five days after the delivery of the goods that ODPEM played catch-up by preparing internal procurement documentation for the purchase.

Said the auditor general: “The engagement of the supplier by the minister breached section 20 of the Public Procurement Act 2015 … which places direct responsibility for all procurement activities on the head of the procuring entity. This means that only the accountable officer, or the head of the entity is legally empowered to initiate procurement and there is no provision in law which allows the minister/ co-chair RROC to approve or initiate commitments, select suppliers or give directives to ODPEM for payments.”

Mr Vaz said he would do it again.

There are sound reasons for the division – the assignment of policy to elected officials, and dayto-day management of the affairs of government is the purview of the permanent civil service.

Elected leaders have democratic accountability to the national constituency, via the Parliament, for the policies implemented by a government.

But the permanent, politically neutral civil service ensures administrative continuity even when political administrations change. They implement the policies of the government of the day.

However, the accounting officer, usually the permanent secretary, or a head of department, is responsible for the legal and, within the framework established by Parliament, ethical use of taxpayers’ resources. They can be personally held to account if they breach this fiduciary obligation. Which is why if a minister insists on overriding an accounting officer’s considered advice, the officer can request the minister’s formal instruction, in writing, before implementing the policy directive.

POTENTIAL FOR CORRUPTION

When these systems falter, the potential for corruption rises, including the partisan allocation of state resources. While Mr Vaz may have acted with good intentions, by bypassing established procurement rules, he perverted a system to which he was obliged to adhere.

In a different circumstance, without being able to plead the urgency of a hurricane, another minister might feel empowered by Mr Vaz’s example.

Moreover, a technically sound, credible and effective disaster relief and management agency ought to have been aware of its telecommunications requirements in the aftermath of the hurricane, without the prodding intervention of the co-chair of the ad hoc committee, important though it is. Further, it beggars the imagination what time would have been lost if ODPEM had, as required by law, and utilising the flexibility allowed in emergencies, initiated its own procurement, rather than depending on Minister Vaz’s initiative.

There are important questions, too, about who holds these taxpayer-owned assets, to what use they are being put, and by whom.

Up to early January, the auditor general found, 60 per cent (120) of the Starlink devices had been distributed to 17 agencies. Thirteen of those agencies provided information on 86 of the devices. A verification exercise on eight of the agencies “revealed that all 41 issued to them were unused and kept in storage”. Put another way, a third of those 86 kits were in mothballs.

Additionally, the report noted, “five entities did not record the Starlink devices, raising concerns regarding accountability and safeguarding of Government of Jamaica-owned assets”.

The audit found, too, that ODPEM operated a seemingly dysfunctional inventory system so that in addition to the Starlink devices, nearly J$60 million of goods purchased in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane “were not included in ODPEM’s inventory records”.

The shame of these findings is that they are not

déjà vu. We have been here before. Many times. The problem isn’t burdensome procurement rules.

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