KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Government has begun the process of distributing funds from its coffers to Jamaicans whose houses were damaged by Hurricane Beryl, with Prime Minister Andrew Holness disclosing that he has instructed the labour ministry to ensure the assistance reaches Jamaicans as quickly as possible.

The prime minister made the disclosure when he addressed a ceremony at the Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s head office in Kingston on Monday.

He also urged staffers at the labour ministry to lend their best efforts towards ensuring help reaches Jamaicans in need quickly.

“I appeal to staffers at the ministry, to your better conscience, to your love of country, to put in the effort to ensure that your fellow Jamaicans, many of whom have no bed, have no clothes, have nowhere to live, their children don’t know how they’re going to go back to school, be prepared to show compassion and to put in the effort, show empathy for the people who are suffering, push through and deliver these benefits to them as quickly as possible,” Holness urged.

Holness noted that after Beryl impacted Jamaica on July 3 this year, almost a week later on July 9, he was able to advise Parliament of tangible assistance which the Government had earmarked to help with recovery efforts, including the emergency assistance efforts and $1 billion in house rebuilding and repair assistance.

He pointed out that this contrasts with what transpired in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan hit Jamaica and it took the then administration over a month to arrive at the stage where it was able to announce any assistance for Jamaicans in need.

“When Hurricane Ivan hit, the then Government after one month announced assistance of $20,000 for severe or total damage and $7,000 for severe damage and $5,000 for minor damage. After having initially indicated the assistance planned a few days after Hurricane Beryl struck, today, I’m pleased to attend this event where we are way beyond the announcement phase and are beginning the process of distributing $400,000 to assist people in the recovery from the total loss of their homes,” Prime Minister Holness told the event at the labour ministry.

Holness reiterated that $150,000 is also being distributed to Jamaicans who suffered severe housing damage and $50,000 for minor damage and that the funds are entirely from the Government’s coffers.

He highlighted that even when inflation is taken into consideration, the allocation by the Government is significantly more than what transpired when Ivan hit Jamaica in 2004.

The prime minister reiterated that the process that the allocation for Hurricane Beryl recovery efforts had to go through before reaching the disbursement stage was embarked upon to ensure accountability and transparency.

He went on to credit his administration’s good management of Jamaica’s fiscal affairs and efficiency for the significantly quicker time in reaching both the announcement and disbursement of funds stages in the Beryl Recovery effort compared to what occurred when Hurricane Ivan struck twenty years ago.

“When we were hit by Ivan, we had to rely on $3.3 billion of grants, most of it would have come from the European Union along with from our American and Canadian partners. Today, by virtue of the positive change in our fiscal management and fiscal arrangements, we have put in place buffers and insurance for which we can draw down for the immediate response, $5 billion of your own funds, in addition to insurance funds, so that we can respond to our own management of the disaster,” Holness reiterated.

During his address,  Holness quoted extensively from an article published by the Jamaica Information Service in 2004 when then Labour Minister, the late Donald Buchanan commented that “the Government is not an insurer of buildings” and insisted that the cheque disbursement process augured well for transparency when compared with the option of distributing vouchers to victims of a natural disaster.

Buchanan had argued that while there was the perception that the voucher system provided guarantees against corruption, this had not been the experience, since in the past there had been occasions where beneficiaries and suppliers had collaborated to substitute a discounted cash payment for the voucher.

“We have therefore decided to pay these assistance grants with cheques, which will be cashed by the beneficiaries, and which will give them the flexibility to make optimum use of the funds in the present circumstances,” Minister Buchanan commented at the time.