SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine – Director of the Office of National Reconstruction (ONR), Kingsley Thomas, has blasted the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) for not distributing 1,000 three-bedroom tents to persons who had lost their roofs during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

According to Thomas, the tents were still lying in storage at ODPEM and even after Hurricane Dean’s destructive trek along the island’s east and southern shores last month, were not distributed to victims.

“I find that the tents…1,000 three-room tents… are still there not delivered to the people who need them. (They) are being saved for termites,” Thomas told the St Catherine Parish Development Committee at a special meeting in Spanish Town to assess post-Hurricane Dean relief and reconstruction activities on Wednesday.

He said the tents, valued at US$35 each – were similar to those used in refugee camps abroad and are meant for families who are required to spend more than four weeks in a disaster shelter.

But in responding to the charge, ODPEM’s director general, Ronald Jackson, stoutly denied any “degree of negligence” for the non-distribution of the tents, pointing out that the tents were handed over to the agency four months after Hurricane Ivan and were not “ideal for emergency sheltering”.

“We (ODPEM) received 600 tents from the ONR four months after the September hurricane (Ivan) when ONR was winding down operations. The need then would have been to deal with reconstruction of Portland and Old Harbour Bay (St Catherine) but there were no requirements so they were not requested” the ODPEM director general explained.

He said 300 of the tents are on loan to the cadet corps and schools, while the other 300 have been stored for future use.

“You see, these tents are there to be set up as a tent city as they provide no security for occupants (so) we get no requests for them,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Thomas told Wednesday’s meeting that he was most surprised to have found a situation at ODPEM where it “was a run jostling as to who (which agency) can do it (distributing relief supplies) first” following his appointment as head of the ONR.

“I found that they had a fragmentation in the delivery of things,” he said.

Following the meeting, he told the Observer that proper storage of relief items was not available at ODPEM citing, for example, that the agency did not have enough tarpaulins for distribution following Hurricane Dean but through his effort was able to get 10,000.

“Because of the urgency to have tarpaulins, which were needed immediately, I had to fly them in from Miami,” he said, pointing out that an air charter costs between US$45,000 and US$50,000. “So if these things were stocked up beforehand, the same container would only cost US$15,000 to bring them in from Miami. So it is a case of being penny wise and pound foolish. This is a disaster… we can’t afford to wait until the disaster happens before we run around to provide stuff we know will be needed. These are the sort of things I am talking about.”

He said ODPEM was operating without a proper budget and believes there is need for substantial funds in order to have stocks of tarpaulins, tents and non-perishable items to do a proper job.

“You can’t give an institution basket to carry water,” he said. “You can’t escape the fact that we can expect more disasters at this time to occur more frequently and with increasing intensity.”

He recommended that government merge the functions of the ONR with ODPEM to widen its mandate and empower ODPEM to undertake not only the relief and recovery functions, but also that of reconstruction.