ANDREW Holness says that while the Government spent its first two years in office dealing with problems that were external to the country, the administration has laid the foundation for a number of developmental projects that are now ready to be delivered.

“We’re transitioning out of preparation mode into delivery mode,” Holness, the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) communication point man, told the Sunday Observer in a recent interview.

Holness was responding to criticism that the JLP had failed to deliver on many of the promises it made in the campaign for the September 2007 general elections, which the party won after 18 years in Opposition.

“The second year of Government is completing the preparation for the launching of the projects,” he said, pointing out that the programmes were outlined by Prime Minister Bruce Golding in his address to the JLP’s 66th annual conference last month as:

* the shift from oil to natural gas for which the Government is about to invite investors to bid to provide the necessary investment and infrastructure;

* the pursuit of new investment in the bauxite and alumina industry to modernise the country’s mining and processing operations “so that we can be back in business when the global conditions improve and so that our bauxite workers can get back to work”.

* the imminent construction of more than 10,000 new housing solutions and settlement upgrading by the National Housing Trust and private developers;

* completion of arrangements for a major water supply programme costing $1.9 billion to expand water supplies in several parishes across Jamaica;

* new financing arrangements for a major road improvement programme adding to that which is being done through the Road Maintenance Fund of the Ministry of Transport and Works;

* the provision of funding to support small, medium and micro enterprises, as well as new measures to enhance credit eligibility and reduce the amount of collateral required; and

* the development of the Caymans Enterprise Zone, which will provide thousands of new jobs and for which commitments have been made which will enable construction to commence next year.

“So it’s not as if we’re not doing anything. There’s quite a bit of stuff there,” said Holness, who also pointed to gains in agriculture and tourism to support his argument.

Asked whether two years wasn’t too long a time to prepare, Holness said: “There’s no snap-finger solution to our problems, and our society is increasingly becoming rules-based, particularly as it relates to procurement and administration.”

“But rules-based governance,” he argued, “is not an excuse for a slow bureaucracy. Indeed, a rules-based governance process should make a bureaucracy work faster because it removes discretion and it removes uncertainty.”

He pointed out that the first major issue the Government faced after taking office was the post-Hurricane Ivan recovery.

“Then we had to deal with the rise in oil prices [for] which we had to subsidise food prices; then the collapse of the mortgage markets in the US, which precipitated a general banking collapse and contagion right around the world — and we had no banking collapse in Jamaica as we took all the necessary measures to prevent that in Jamaica,” he said.

“Aside from those things which are exogenous to the country, we inherited an almost broke Ministry of Finance, a teacher salary agreement which was significant, other wage agreements right in that critical time when we were facing a recession,” he said, adding that additional costs have hit the Government in the form of $1.4 billion claimed by construction firm Ashtrom Building systems for work done on Sabina Park for Cricket World Cup 2007; a more than $180 million loan agreement with Glencore for expansion work in the bauxite sector; and last month’s Privy Council award of $1.85 billion in damages plus interest to the National Transport Co-operative Society for the termination of a licence by the former Government in 2001.

“So there have been all kinds of things popping up on us that we didn’t create, and we’ve had to be mopping them up,” said Holness. “The hangover from the last Government is still affecting us.”

Asked whether the party felt unlucky to have taken over the reins of Government at the time, Holness said “no”.

“The mindset of the JLP is that we are the Government to rescue the country,” he said. “We are not bewildered. It is hard work and everybody is working very hard. It is tiring work, but we are all motivated because we all want to prove that we can deliver what we say we would deliver. Clearly, we are disappointed we are not able to deliver the jobs as quickly, and we haven’t delivered everything that we’ve promised in the manifesto, but our major promises as they relate to health, education, we’ve delivered.