KINGSTON, Jamaica – Seventy-four per cent of the, 823 respondents to a recent OBSERVER ONLINE poll believe that the Chinese contractors should not have been given land as part-payment to build the North/South leg of Highway 2000.

The previous People’s National Party (PNP) Administration entered in a land payment deal with the Chinese where parcels of land – including 250 acres at Mameee Bay in St Ann and 600 acres at Caymanas, St Catherine — were given to China Harbour Construction Company (CHEC) in lieu of cash as part-payment to construct the highway.However, an untidy situation emerged when, on May 3, head of the National Road Operating Constructing Company Ivan Anderson told Parliament that that of the 1,200 acres of State lands given to CHEC, 850 acres was not valued.Facing public pushback regarding the deal, the PNP contended that without this land arrangement the highway would not have been built.“The whole purpose why we were entering into these arrangements was because the Government was short of cash, the Government in 2011 under the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) Administration, and the Government in 2012 with a PNP Administration. Ways had to be found to build the highway — without this land arrangement, which was arrived at by the previous Administration of the JLP, the highway would not have been built,” Opposition leader Dr Phillips argued.But Contractor General Dirk Harrison on May 8 hinted that successive administrations have routinely failed at governing the country citing the land deal as an indiscretion on the part of both the PNP, which signed off on it, and the ruling Jamaica Labour Party which continued it.Twenty-six per cent of the respondents agreed with the land swap deal.