Last weekend, my husband and I decided to take a drive out of town. On our way I requested he take a slight detour through Elizabeth and Three Views avenues to get to Washington Boulevard. As we made our way, he looked at me and said: “This is like navigating a minefield,” as he constantly swerved around deep potholes. I responded, “And they patched these last year.” I couldn’t help but be mindful of some of the terrible roads in my constituency.

If you are a Jamaican, chances are you or your family may come from somewhere another Jamaican may have never heard of. Places like John Crow Spring, Quick Step, Wiltshire, Whales Pond, Baccaswood, Tangle River, Palmetto, Elgin, and Swamp in deep rural Jamaica, “weh deh way behind God back,” come to mind. But journeying to them may pose a challenge based on some existing road conditions to take you there.

Over the past couple of months protests have erupted in different areas across the island by motorists demonstrating against their daily commute on bad road conditions. Taxi operators and residents of various communities across rural constituencies blocked traffic and complained about the expensive reality of maintaining the front-end parts of their cars. In contrast, others lamented the security risk of slowing down for potholes while driving at night.

While the municipal corporations are responsible for arterial roads, the National Works Agency (NWA) operates, maintains, and improves the country’s leading main road network and flood control systems.

The Government says it “shares the concerns and frustrations of the people [and] will be doing all possible to improve the condition of roads into the many communities”. Additionally, the NWA has been instructed to “ramp up its supervision of works to monitor the activities that are likely to cause public unrest [as] some of the demonstrations have been in respect of works now underway” (Clifford Everald Warmington, sectoral debate, May 11, 2022).

“It is widely known that the majority of our main road infrastructure is in dire need of attention. The NWA estimates that [it] needs somewhere in the region of $100 billion to start to make a dent in this problem faced by many Jamaicans.” (Clifford Everald Warmington, sectoral debate, May 11, 2022)

This need would represent 16.5 per cent of an available $604.5 billion, which remains from the national budget after subtracting the $307.5 billion for debt servicing from the total $912 billion for 2022/2023.

This May it was reported to Parliament that the NWA’s top-three priorities for this financial year are:

1) The continuation of the Southern Coastal Highway Improvement Project (SCHIP) — $12 billion

2) The commencement of the Special Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) Programme, which will see to the widening of Arthur Wint Drive, Braeton Road and Hellshire main road, Sandy Gully Bridge on Washington Boulevard, Pembroke Hall, and Ken Hill Drive. Along with the dualisation of Grange Lane, East King’s House Road, Lady Musgrave Road (encompassing Barbican Road to Hope Road to Trafalgar Road), and the widening from Naggo Head to the Texaco Gas Station to a new Portmore access — $8 billion

3) The continued maintenance of secondary roads — $4 billion

It is the NWA’s priority number three, “continued maintenance of secondary roads”, which has grabbed my focus, and here’s why. In an environment of limited resources to fix many deteriorating roads nationally we need to ensure four things:

(i) an equitable system to allocate funding to districts;

(ii) establishing consistent quality standards to ensure more roads are rehabilitated (not patched) for them to last and not need remedial work annually;

(iii) guaranteeing efficiency in execution of work; and

(iv) securing prioritisation in the selection of roads and cost control.

During the last fiscal year the Government reported spending approximately $5.3 billion on road maintenance and repairs, while $637 million was spent on flood mitigation works. There are 63 constituencies, all of varying sizes. On average, this would have worked out to $84 million per constituency and, if prorated, could equal $100 million for larger areas, $84 million for medium, and $68 million for small. However, this is not the case.

From experience, St Ann South Eastern is the largest physical constituency. Therefore, instead of a probable allocation of $100 million, people cannot receive an approved $27 million since June 2021.

Given a dearth of resources and a “lack of proper supervision of contractors by the NWA staff, while the contractors are performing maintenance or rehabilitation”, Minister Warmington acknowledges that “closer supervision will have to be done and must be done by the responsible staff of the NWA to ensure that the quality of work, meets the required standards”.

However, the problems in the NWA are not only supervisory and funding related, but also the quality of contractors and subcontractors being used. I am advised that, in most instances, the NWA awards jobs on the lowest tender only, so the quality and track record of the contractors are not necessarily considered, which may result in contractors underpricing and providing substandard materials and workmanship to “get the work”.

Even with inconsistencies in their quality control standards and an extreme lack of resources, the NWA suffers from a much bigger issue, that of an implementation deficit disorder: Approved projects take too long to get done!

Let me give you an example: On October 30, 2020 I wrote to the NWA CEO citing that the agency has not resurfaced some of the most travelled roads in the constituency over many years. Furthermore, the periodic application of asphalt patching was inadequate, providing only temporary relief given the severity of the terrain and weather patterns. Hence, I requested a complete resurfacing and overlay for the Claremont to Lime Hall and Colgate to Hopewell main roads.

Unfortunately, I did not receive a response; leading me to send a follow-up letter on March 8, 2021 to the St Ann NWA parish manager regarding the roads and other detailed matters regarding total allocations for the parish of St Ann.

It was not until Minister Warmington intervened on my behalf that the St Ann NWA parish manager advised me, on July 4, 2021, that they had submitted estimates for the Claremont to Lime Hall road corridors, which totalled roughly $275.9 million. However, the agency-approved budget was $30 million, including the agency fees, allowing approximately $27 million to undertake the works.

This approved allocation was less than 10 per cent of the estimated budget to fix the road. But, to make matters worse, it is one year later and no work has started on the road, even with an appointed contractor last month. Between this delay and inflation I expect the NWA to inform me that the money is now insufficient and will only complete 80 per cent of the original estimate, considering the price per ton for asphalt increased by more than 10 per cent.

Essentially, this process has taken nearly two years since I requested NWA’s assistance for resurfacing one main road. Sadly, $27 million will not rehabilitate this main road to St Ann’s Bay. As the Member of Parliament, the people blame me for the budget shortfall and the NWA’s procrastination.

It begs the question: Who decides which roads get fixed in Jamaica and by how much? If I had not spoken to the minister for his help, perhaps I would never have received any correspondence or movement from the NWA.

This year the Government approved $4 billion for “road maintenance and rehabilitation”. I’m suggesting that the current system needs an overhaul. Within the context of limited and admittedly inadequate resources, we need a system that provides more public transparency in the equitable allocation of budgets by the NWA, more accountability in their performance, and reliance on commuters’ travelling needs as the priority rather than probable voting patterns.

Lisa Hanna is Member of Parliament for St Ann South Eastern, People’s National Party spokesperson on foreign affairs and foreign trade, and a former Cabinet member.