Prime Minister Andrew Holness says no predetermined sum will be set aside for any of the contractors bidding under the Government’s $40 billion road improvement initiative, stressing that it will be a competitive process that should guarantee the best rates.

“It will be four [contractors]. They will have to compete. So nobody is taking up a contract and handing it over to anybody. No, it will be a competitive contract, so the best rates will be had for the people of Jamaica. So there’s no predetermined cut or percentage out of the contract for the contractor,” Holness said on Sunday.

The prime minister, who was speaking at a Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spot meeting in Exchange, St Ann on Sunday, was hitting back at critics of the Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) programme.

“I hear some people talking about the SPARK programme and I hear a man say he is [prophesying] that is a Chinese company going to get it. Him a prophesy about how much money going to be taken from the SPARK programme as a cut. Sometimes when you hear people start accuse [it’s their] conscience bothering them, because that is what they did when they were in Government,” he said.

Two weekends ago, Opposition spokesman on national security Peter Bunting, speaking on a political platform, said “Dem run this likkle con business weh dem talking bout SPARK programme” while lamenting that despite the Government’s indications that the programme is transparent, he believes Chinese companies will be awarded the majority of contracts under the initiative.

“Dem done know who a get the contracts already… me a prophesy say is a Chinese company a get dat contract,” he said, while also claiming that the Government will be using the programme’s funds to finance the upcoming elections.

“You mark my word, the JLP (Jamaica Labour Party) a go nyam out most a dat money,” Bunting alleged.

Last Monday, the Government, through a release from the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, dismissed Bunting’s claims as unfounded.

“All contract packages will be subject to approval by the Public Procurement Commission and the Cabinet. Additionally, all contracts, as is customary, will be reported to the Integrity Commission, ensuring full compliance with regulatory standards and transparency,” the release said, highlighting key aspects of the initiative.

The ministry further said that the narrative currently surrounding the initiative is baseless and seeks to “detract from the positive impact this programme aims to achieve”.

On Sunday, Holness said that the Government recognises that to do a comprehensive programme like SPARK, “it must be transparent, it must be cost effective, and ultimately stand up to public scrutiny by virtue of the accounting for the programme [and] for the quality of work that you get as well”.

He argued that the SPARK programme, therefore, is very different from any other programme of road repairs and road construction that any government has done before as it will not be carried out with borrowed funds like previous programmes.

“You had JDIP (Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme) — that was borrowing; you had MIDP (Major Infrastructure Development Programme) — that was borrowing; and when they did JDIP and MIDP, they cut to the contractors who did it, not the local contractors but the overall contractor, which was a Chinese company, was a substantial cut under the JDIP and when we took it over in MIDP, we made sure that we renegotiated the contract to reduce the amount that the contractors got,” the prime minister said.

“The SPARK programme is quite different from what the PNP used to do, where [they] don’t have no accountability in spending public money, no transparency and no guarantee of best price and no guarantee of quality. This programme has taken into consideration the decades of frustration of the Jamaican people regarding how their taxpayer dollars have been spent or their borrowed money has been spent. And we have designed a programme for transparency, for efficiency, for cost effectiveness, and for quality and for public participation. No other programme like that has ever been structured in Jamaica,” he said.

The SPARK  programme involves the award of contracts to undertake the works in four packages.

Package one encompasses Kingston, St Andrew, and St Thomas; package two — St Catherine and Clarendon; package 3 — Manchester, St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, and Hanover; and package four — St James, Trelawny, St Ann, St Mary, and Portland.

The work will include pavement resurfacing/rehabilitation; sidewalk rehabilitation; drainage improvements; waterline improvements; retaining wall construction; and intersection improvement at strategic locations.

At a post-Cabinet media briefing about two weeks ago, minister with responsibility for works Robert Morgan announced that five international construction companies were successful at the pre-qualification stage in the bidding process for the SPARK contracts.
He said that eight construction companies responded to the bids and of the eight, two were local.

“This week we will be sending out bid proposals to those five pre-qualified enterprise construction companies and these proposals will be for them to bid on the four packages that are across the island. And we expect those bid proposals to be returned by mid-August and then we will seek approval from the Public Procurement Commission, as well as Cabinet, to award contracts by the end of September this year,” he said then.

The Government has said that SPARK is aimed at modernising more than 2,000 roads islandwide.

The programme also forms the basis of a comprehensive road infrastructure management strategy, including the development of a comprehensive register of all roads, and an alignment of engineering lifetime schedules with budgetary allocation.