MONTEGO BAY, St James — Former Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association (JHTA) President Wayne Cummings has blasted the Government for administrative ineptitude, which he says has resulted in already cash-strapped companies not being reimbursed in a timely manner having advanced government grants to COVID-19-affected tourism workers.

He congratulated the Government for introducing “the SET Cash [direct payments from the Government to workers] and BEST Cash [through companies to the workers]”, however, he said companies were expecting reimbursement at the end of each month but only some have so far been repaid for the month of April.

“For the companies that agreed to be an effective conduit for the Government’s grants to be paid to workers, we have already advanced more than three months of payments, amounting to several million US dollars, for which some of us have only yesterday [Monday] received April’s advance,” Cummings disclosed.

“The frustration experienced by the sector, to the ineffective policy directives from the Ministry of Finance and Tax Administration Jamaica, which required much administrative pushback from us to correct them, was nothing short of ridiculous, and, sadly, turned what, by all accounts, should have been a commendable governmental effort into fiasco that has literally pushed hundreds of our businesses closer to financial ruin,” he said.

He expressed hope that the companies will soon be reimbursed the outstanding advance payments.

“We expect that the GOJ [Government of Jamaica] will make good on reimbursing our advance payments for the additional two months due. We want to support the Government with the additional payments for July and August, but they will understand that we are extremely sceptical about moving forward unless we receive assurances that the embarrassing administrative missteps will not recur,” Cummings argued.

The former JHTA president also lashed the Government for reneging on its promise in March, of a $1.2-billion grant fund “to assist mainly small- and medium-sized tourism businesses to get back on their feet”.

“Unfortunately, four months later, these businesses are still awaiting that assistance. We have no quarrel with the Government for wanting to ensure that the strongest oversight and due diligence is followed in the disbursement of the grant funds, but other than for some suggestions here and there that it is still coming, we are nowhere closer to being able to give any assurances to these businesses that are desperately in need, particularly to assist them with implementing and maintaining the required but stringent COVID-19 protocols, when they will receive it,” Cummings stated.

He was speaking at a virtual JHTA press conference at Jamaica Pegasus in Kingston yesterday.

JHTA President Omar Robinson, who also spoke at the press conference, noted that “although tourism businesses have begun reopening, this must not be misconstrued that the sector is operating at optimal levels of profitability”.

“In fact, the opposite is true. Most of these businesses need to achieve an average of 60 per cent occupancy to achieve breakeven, while currently we are tracking at between 10 to 35 per cent. Therefore, not only are the closed properties losing money, the just reopened ones are also burning millions of dollars in operating expenses in the hope of growing occupancies to breakeven levels,” hesaid.

“The JHTA recognises its central role in the rebound of the Jamaican economy. However, it is not a role it can do without close and effective partnerships with the Government of Jamaica, our financial institutions, other sectors, and our workers,” Robinson said.