JDIP smells like corned pork

THE RETARDED manner in which politics has been practised in Jamaica over the years has resulted in millions of dollars of taxpayers' money being funnelled either into the pockets of corrupt politicians and their friends, or being wasted on various projects because of poor planning and policy guidelines.

The Christiana development road in northeast Manchester is one example of burning taxpayers' money and then hoping the justification for the multimillion-dollar spend will one day catch up with it.

Parliament's Public Administration and Appropriations Committee last week learnt that $800 million was being spent on the one-kilometre road, a shocking revelation to say the least.

The Jamaica Information Service (JIS) had reported in September last year that the road would have cost US$6 million (approximately J$500 million).

So far, there has been no explanation about why the cost has nearly doubled.

Audley Shaw, the member of parliament for the area, who also has oversight responsibility for what smells like pork funds, has sought to justify the spend, saying it will ease traffic in the town of Christiana and facilitate the development of the area.

Thank heavens the Office of the Contractor General has stepped in to ask questions about this project.

Hopefully, the auditor general will join the fray soon and consider factors such as the economic rate of return for this expensive road.

Their intervention, however, will come at the backend and will not save taxpayers from the burden if this project is found to be an unnecessary debt.

scandalous spending

The Parliamentary Opposition, which when it held government refused to subject the PetroCaribe funds to Parliamentary oversight, has been at the altar of righteous indignation saying the spending on Shaw's expensive road is scandalous. And if the Opposition cries chicanery, believe them, for it is the symbolic fish that has been to the river bottom.

It is projects like this expensive road that reinforces the view of The Gavel that parliamentarians and the executive should be confined to determining policies and making laws.

Their influence over the use of resources is far too persuasive and has been stifling the development of the country.

We believe independent-minded technical persons should be allowed to implement projects within a framework decided on by legislators.

This would go a far way in removing any suggestion of bias or impropriety on the part of politicians, in the implementation of projects such as the JDIP.

In the case of the expensive road that takes us nowhere far, our issue is not so much that it is being built.

Instead, we are concerned with it being built at this time, and whether the spending is justified.

We are also concerned that this road is being constructed in the first phase of the JDIP when one considers that there are other critical roads that are in need of urgent attention.

Shaw's $8000-million road now reinforces the need for not only parliamentary oversight of JDIP but also for the probative contractor general to have authority to check that all is well on board.

Failure to do this could condemn the JDIP to being a massive pork fund that provides jobs for the boys and political one-upmanship under the guise of road and infrastructure repairs.

We believe it is not too late to switch off the engines of the heavy-duty units and for workmen to put down spades and pickaxes while the Government gets this programme right.

Parliament, through either the House of Representatives or select committees, could meet in a select committees for up to one month discussing and agreeing upon the framework in which the JDIP is being implemented.

Critical to those discussions should be the report of Parish Development Committees across the island, which not only outline the immediate needs of parishes but also point to the way Jamaicans want to see their communities.

It would be a good thing if state minister with responsibility for local government, Robert Montague, who led these consultations, takes a comprehensive report to Parliament and put it at the centre of JDIP discussions.

The Gavel has long conceded the need for a JDIP and it is a move we commend the Government on.

But if the administration is not careful, it runs the risk of ruining a potentially good programme.

The Government, like everyone else, knows that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and The Gavel hopes this JDIP will not turn out to be another gravy train that takes us there.

thegavel@gleanerjm.com