The Opposition is taking the Administration to task over the non-implementation of capital budget projects in relation to bridge development and construction as the entire $1.29 billion allotted in the 2023/24 budget to undertake these activities has been sent back to the Government’s coffers.

It was revealed in the fourth supplementary estimates for 2023/24, tabled by Finance and the Public Service Minister Dr Nigel Clarke a week ago, that these monies had been returned.

Chair of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament Mikael Phillips raised concern about the matter during Tuesday’s meeting as he grilled National Works Agency (NWA) head, EG Hunter, on why the projects could not be implemented in the stipulated time frame.

“I got very excited when the budget was tabled last year and saw an increase from $70 million, which is what is the standard figure in any budget that I have seen for bridge construction and maintenance, seeing that increase to $1.3 billion. Then my heart leaped when I saw the fourth supplementary estimates that $1.29 billion of that $1.3 billion is now sent back to the Ministry of Finance… What are the issues for $1.3 billion to be returned…Why it is that we are taking back the whole amount that was put in the budget for bridge construction and maintenance?” Phillips asked.

Hunter explained that the process by which the capital provision in the budget is spent is dictated by the need to satisfy the requirement of the Public Investment Appraisal Branch (PIAB) protocol, which the staff of the NWA and other Government agencies are still familiarising themselves with, and as such, the process has been hampered.

“The PIAB protocol has been designed with the objective of having a more streamlined, effective and efficient process in project preparation. I don’t think there can be any argument as to the need for such a protocol. The truth is that that protocol came into being in the last two years or so. And understandably, entities of government will have some learning to do, so as to be able to utilise that protocol and exploit its efficiencies in the best way possible. As it now stands, we at the NWA, we rely to a large extent on consultants to assist in the preparation of the required documentation to go to the PlAB,” Hunter said.

According to information from the Finance Ministry, the PIAB is the single point of entry for all projects intended for the Public Investment Programme (PSIP) which is a rolling five-year plan of those new and ongoing public investment projects that require Cabinet approval to access fiscal space (budgetary allocation). All projects in the PSIP are reviewed against the priorities and fiscal agenda of the country, as well as the technical capacity of the executing agencies.

“We have been studiously fulfilling the requirements of that protocol. The very first bridge that we got through the PIAB system was the Troy bridge [located in Phillips’s constituency] and although construction has not yet started, I would like to inform you that we did go to tender because once the PIAB system has been successfully gone through, the next step in the process is the procurement and we have gone to procurement for the Troy bridge,” Hunter said.

“The tenders were returned last week. We are now in the process of analysing those tenders and it is our plan to submit that recommendation for contract award to the Public Procurement Commission in another week and a half, two weeks’ time, and then on to Cabinet. So hopefully, very early in the new financial year, we should have the contract awarded,” Hunter explained.

He said the NWA is following the same protocol for the Craig Mill Bridge and that submission should be made shortly.“The other bridge of importance to us is the Spring Village bridge, which we did go to tender for as well. The return is due the 13th of February.”

He said those contracts should be in place very early in the new financial year.

But Phillips, who is Member of Parliament (MP) for Manchester North Western and has been lobbying for the Troy bridge’s repair since it collapsed in 2021, was not moved by this revelation, and continued to decry the length of time it takes to get projects under way.

“So, the issue that I have — one, is the time frame for procurement because this was put in the budget at the beginning of the financial year, not in a supplementary budget. We are at the end of the financial year and you basically just put out to tender some of them and some of them you’re just getting back the tender process. After receiving that tender process, again, it’s going to take at least another couple of months even for the contractor to be mobilised and to go on the ground. [Another] issue is the length of time that it takes in dealing with the procurement because in the capital expenditure I am seeing the $20 million allocated to the Troy bridge… [but] it still has not made my heart smile. I have been here long enough to know, don’t get excited until you see workmen on the ground because I have seen projects stall even after the tender process,” he said.

“I’ve been chastised by constituents on both sides, because they put up a temporary footbridge, which they expected me to put up. I mean, they cut down some trees and they did something there which is also putting their own lives at danger. They are desperate,” he said.

Phillips also pressed Financial Secretary Darlene Morrison about the continued slow pace of capital projects implementation and asked what the Government is doing to address it.

“We are planning to do some training, in terms of how to execute a project. Our procurement arm, our Public Expenditure Policy Coordination Division, is looking at putting [that in place]… by next fiscal year,” Morrison said.

Phillips replied, “I think it is urgently needed, because it’s a frustration for those of us, especially us elected representatives, when a project is announced in the House. You go to your constituency and you see schools that are in need of repair and then you come back and you see in the budget here that those capital expenditures are not expended. Then it becomes an issue and it’s a national issue because it affects productivity, it affects the education system, it affects our everyday life.”

The fourth supplementary estimates propose total expenditure of approximately $1.092 trillion, a reduction of $2.5 billion on the approved budget that is reflected in the third supplementary estimates that were approved on September 26 last year.

The finance minister had said the reduction on the capital budget is due to the continued slow pace of implementation on some projects resulting in their inability to utilise the full allocations for the fiscal year.