Prime Minister Andrew Holness yesterday warned that the Government is seeking to introduce a performance management policy to penalise contractors for incomplete or shabby roadwork.

Speaking at a function at Jamaica House to accommodate the signing of three contracts to start work on the new US$195-million South Coast Highway Improvement Project from Harbour View to Port Antonio, Holness said that contractors who fail to complete the work on time or do shabby work will be penalised under that policy.

“I have asked the new procurement authority to give Cabinet a policy outline as to how we can introduce a performance management contracting policy,” Holness said.

“We know of contractors who have work they don’t complete on time, but yet they come back into the process. So, there must be a way within the procurement process in which past performance of contractors feature in their ability to get future work,” he said.

“We have given a directive to the new procurement agency to come to us now with that, because that will have to start the rule-setting to create the institutional framework to change the culture of our contractors,” he added.

He said that the Government’s aim is to create contractors who can compete with major firms like China Harbour Engineering (CHEC) and bid for large projects, not only in Jamaica but anywhere there are projects up for bidding.

However, he admitted that the process would not only focus on the contractors, but would also address their complaints of being hindered by some government practices that put them at a disadvantage.

The prime minister said this was one of the bases of his recent announcement to make changes at the National Works Agency (NWA), to enable it to play a more critical monitoring role in terms of the major infrastructural development projects currently being developed by his Administration.

He said that the new south coast improvement project would not only involve opening up the eastern end of the island, by laying down “a lovely carpet to Morant Bay and eventually into east Portland, but would initiate the development of a new road from that end of the island which will, eventually, lead into the highway system which already covers most of western and central Jamaica, creating a loop around the island in the process.

“So you should be able to drive right around Jamaica on a good highway thoroughfare, and you should be able to go across Jamaica, north to south, on good thoroughfare — that is the objective,” he said.

He noted that the project would not just be limited to good roads, but will start with the 14-kilometre dual carriageway which will run from Harbour View in St Andrew into Morant Bay, St Thomas, and then onto Port Antonio, but would be tied up with plans for major water and sewerage works as well as housing and opportunities for business development.

“We are putting down the necessary infrastructure for water and telecommunications and, where possible and necessary, sewerage. So when we speak about roads, it is not just about asphalt, it is also about water, because we built into this a separate contract for the NWC [National Water Commission],” he stated.

“Once we have put that down, all the lands in that area become viable for development, so that the Government is going to be moving with the National Housing Trust and the Housing Agency of Jamaica to start developments on lands that we own, or have intentions on, and we will call on developers to start looking now to the east to develop the lands that are now viable,” he added.