Ruined roads in constituency ignored - Paulwell

Nadisha Hunter, Staff Reporter

Member of Parliament for East Kingston and Port Royal, Phillip Paulwell, is raising concerns about the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), indicating that only some constituencies were benefiting.

He was speaking at the Jamaica Social Investment Fund's (JSIF), handover ceremony of the rehabilitated Rusden and Tiverton roads at the Johnson Town Seventh Day Adventist Church, Oliver Road, Kingston, on Tuesday.

Paulwell said he wrote to Minister of Transport and Works, Mike Henry asking that the roads in his constituency be fixed, but he has been ignored.

"Last year after we did our community consultation, we came up with a list of 14 worst roads in east Kingston and I did write to the minister with responsibility for roads to say to him we need some help. That was in last August and I wrote one letter and another letter and, to date, we have not yet received a response," he said.

Paulwell said a recent analysis of the programme revealed that no money had been allocated from the programme to rehabilitate roads in east Kingston and Port Royal.

"It is a programme that is being funded by a loan that the Jamaican people have to pay back, but the Chinese government is involved. I want to say to that government that we need to look at how it is being implemented, because it is being done in a completely partisan way," he said.

The upgrade of Rusden and Tiverton roads was completed under the European Union (EU)- funded Poverty Reduction Programme Phase Two (PRP 11) at a total cost of $16.36 million.

Paulwell commended the EU and JSIF for working together in the rehabilitation process of the roads and said he hoped that the JDIP programme would follow the same principles.

"I salute this programme and I am hoping that the JDIP programme could borrow from it in the way to implement in an efficient and transparent way, so that all Jamaicans can benefit," Paulwell said.

POLITICAL PROGRAMME

But State Minister in the Ministry of Transport and Works, Othneil Lawrence dismissed Paulwell's claims that the programme was political.

"I cannot speak to any form of sabotage. It is something in which we are spending US$65 million from the China Ex-Im Bank on the Palisadoes Road, which is in his constituency.

"Also, each member of parliament has access to a CDF fund and so, since 2007, approximately $100 million have been dispersed to this constituency. A member of parliament is free to use that money to fix roads or any other social infrastructure he wants to put in place," he told The Gleaner.

He said he wanted to assure Paulwell that the five-year programme would make a significant impact across the country.