Opposition wants JDIP audit

Inside Parliament

With Alicia Dunkley

Sunday, May 08, 2011

ADAMANT that it will not let the Government off the hook over the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP) that has already caused more than a few clashes, the Opposition last week said it would be inviting the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) and the Auditor General's Department to audit contracts under this project.

"It is not a matter which will go away... let me indicate very clearly that this matter will not disappear. I repeat, it will not disappear," Opposition People's National Party Spokesperson on Finance Dr Omar Davies warned while making his contribution to the 2011/12 Budget Debates at Gordon House in downtown Kingston on Tuesday.

But, subsequent to Dr Davies' presentation, Contractor General Greg Christie, in response to a May 4, 2011 letter written to him by Dr Davies, who is also chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, and Robert Pickersgill, chairman of Parliament's Infrastructure Committee, said he too is being stonewalled by the Government in respect of the project.

"The OCG has been using its best efforts, since September 2010, to comprehensively monitor the implementation of the said project. Towards that end, the OCG has solicited, in writing, the cooperation of the highest levels of the Government of Jamaica, the Ministry of Transport and Works and the National Works Agency," Christie said.

"The OCG has encountered certain obstacles in the pursuit of its endeavours. These have given rise to a number of very serious concerns and questions which the OCG itself now has regarding the administration and implementation of the project," the letter read.

Christie also noted that his office in the recent past has been in communication with the Chief Executive Officer of the National Works Agency, to whom certain formal OCG Statutory Requisitions have been issued.

"However, a number of these requisitions, inclusive of the names of the subcontractors who have been engaged on the various elements of the project, have remained inexplicably outstanding as at today's date. The OCG expects that it will, in short order, be issuing a public statement in respect of the matter," the contractor general said.

Controversy has dogged the Government over its introduction in 2009 of an $8.75 per litre cess on fuel, which it said would be put into the Road Maintenance Fund (RMF) for infrastructural work on roads. Subsequently, it entered into a $340-million loan arrangement with the China Ex-Im Bank, and announced that instead of using the cess proceeds to rehabilitate roads, the revenue from it would be used to service the loan.

The understanding at the time was that in the 2009/10 fiscal year 20 per cent of the increase from the cess would go to the RMF, 35 per cent last fiscal year and 50 per cent this year.

However, only 20 per cent was paid into the fund last fiscal year based on a Cabinet decision -- an action which the Auditor General says is a violation. When the RMF this year revealed that it is unable to service the loan past April this year unless the Government reinstates the income promised, the Opposition roared even louder.

Just last month the Opposition abandoned the sitting of the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament after several hours of intermittent feuding with the Government side over the road programme failed to provoke the actions they wanted.

"No one is seeking a controversy, but the words "transparency and accountability" cannot be loosely used. We need to have the answers to certain questions, particularly in terms of the operations of the JDIP," Davies said on Tuesday, noting that questions posed to Transport and Works Minister Mike Henry from November 2009 are yet to be answered.

"This whole project is shrouded in too much mystery and controversy and there is need for clarity or else we are mocking the concepts of 'transparency and accountability'," he argued.

He requested that the Government outline the roles of the six entities involved in the project, including the ministries of Finance and Transport and Works.

"We demand public disclosure of all contracts with China Ex-Im Bank, China Harbour, NWA, RMF and any other GOJ entity involved. We demand public disclosure of all contracts signed, identifying the scope of work, contract sum and sub-contractors involved. We demand a similar list for the projects proposed for 2011/12," the Opposition Finance pointman said.

Some PNP MPs have complained that there has been no consultation with parish authorities in the selection of roads to be repaired while others have said the list of roads to be fixed often includes those not located in their constituencies.

Dr Davies also implied that something was amiss with the issuance of contracts, and pointed to contract amounts for roads that are many times higher than original parish council estimates for the same roads.

"We need to answer these questions... otherwise, the rumours about this project are simply going to multiply. There are many who assert that the sums being paid for work are sometimes multiples of the initial bids of the contractors. Until all these matters are fully exposed to light and scrutiny, the questions will not go away," he continued.

"This is not a private project. This represents a commitment by the Government of Jamaica on our behalf to borrow (US)$360 million to implement work... I invite the administration to do the correct thing. This issue will not go away and the more the administration seeks to "stonewall and to set up roadblocks", there will be questions as to the rationale for such actions," he warned.

He proposed that "the total JDIP project be revamped and properly structured with transparency and brought through the budget".

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Opposition wants JDIP audit