GRANVILLE, St James – National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang has hit back at People’s National Party (PNP) spokesperson on national security Peter Bunting who has been scathingly critical of the amount of resources Government pumped into repairing police stations last year.

“Ask Mr Bunting how many stations during their tenure they repair or fix. They did nothing to police stations and we are doing all of them,” said Dr Chang.

He was responding to the Jamaica Observer‘s request for a response to Bunting’s claim that his ministry had failed to utilise more than half the funds earmarked for repairs to police stations.

The minister maintained that one of the few accomplishments the PNP could point to, after more than two decades in power, was the Hanover Police Headquarters, but even that was not done well. He said when the Jamaica Labour Party became the Government it had to make repairs.

The war of words began last Saturday as Bunting addressed a PNP West Central constituency conference at Granville Primary School in St James. He described as scandalous the Government’s failure to spend about $300 million of the funds allocated to repair police stations. He said, of the $532 million allocated, just over $200 million had been spent and the rest returned to the consolidated fund.

In response, Dr Chang said this had been caused by challenges with the procurement process put in place to minimise corruption, there has been criticism from within and outside of the Government that the procurement process often causes undue delay.

One project that has long languished is the repair of the Granville Police Station which was razed by fire more than two years ago. Speaking from the nearby school on Saturday, Bunting questioned why funds had been returned to the consolidated fund when the station had not been repaired.

Dr Chang explained that a new and “better zone station” will be constructed instead of doing repairs to the old infrastructure. He was unable to give a start-up date for the project, which he said was in the early stages of design and planning. The minister said Montego Bay business mogul Mark Kerr-Jarrett had transferred the land on which the fire-ravaged structure stands to the Government, paving the way for construction to take place. He said the state-of-the-art facility that will be built would cost approximately $200 million.

“The new station will be built in keeping with the increased demand for policing in the area and the new standards set for police stations by this Government… Their Government build nothing in 22 years,” Dr Chang told Observer West.

He said the zone headquarters will have a reception area, interview rooms, space for community interaction, office space for the commanding officers, and interview rooms.

In May 2021, a fire believed to have been caused by an electrical fault gutted the building that housed the Granville Police Station, causing an estimated $20 million in losses. At the time, the station served more than 7,000 residents in Granville and surrounding communities. After the fire, cops from there were assigned to the police post inside Meadows of Irwin, a gated community which is about five miles away from the original location in Granville.

Since then, there have been several calls for the burnt-out police station to be rebuilt. Councillor for the Granville Division Michael Troupe has been a frequent advocate, who has pointed to his constituents’ concerns that they are at the mercy of hardened criminals.