Bruce's JDIP jitters
Published:Sunday | June 12, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Prime minister reveals concerns over controversial multibillion-dollar programme
Tyrone Reid, Enterprise Reporter
Amid mounting controversy over the construction of a one-kilometre stretch of road in Christiana, Manchester, at a cost of J$800 million, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has expressed concerns about the operations of the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), under which it falls.
The National Works Agency (NWA), he says, has been ordered to hire an independent firm to approve every payment to be made under the JDIP.
"And my instructions to them last week were that we must now seek to procure the services of an independent firm of competent people who will have to certify that works carried out are in accordance with the scope of works, and that the payment certificate submitted for approval is in accordance with the work that is actually carried out.
"As I said, that programme is too vital to us for us to allow even the appearance of anything wrong," Golding told a gathering of Jamaica Labour Party councillors and caretakers at the Jamaica Conference Centre in the country's capital yesterday afternoon.
Golding's intervention was ostensibly spawned by the heated debates and public outcry caused by the revelation of the US$8.9 million being spent on what is being called the Christiana road-development programme in the North East Manchester constituency of the finance minister, Audley Shaw.
"We have had some serious aspersions cast, for example, on the JDIP programme in terms of its expenditure, and it was a matter of sufficient concern to me that I summoned the works agency, the Ministry of Finance. Minister Henry himself was not here at the time as he was off the island on official business in Cuba, but I thought it was so important that I couldn't wait until he returned," Golding told the gathering of party supporters.
explanation asked for
The prime minister explained that he asked the officials to explain the processes from project identification, to scope of works, to the awarding of contracts, and to payment of money.
"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," he said.
He added: "But when I look at the performance of the works agency, there is too great a distance between their estimates, their contract sum, and the amount that is actually spent, but too often, projects start out costing $10, and by the time they are finished, you breeze past $20 easily."
While noting his discomfort with the accountability processes in place, Golding made it clear that he was not accusing anyone of impropriety because he did not have any evidence of that. He also said he had not yet got a full report on the J$800 million spent in Shaw's constituency.