PRIME Minister Andrew Holness is adamant that the deplorable state of many of the nation’s roads is not a product of neglect by his Administration.

According to Holness, a number of factors, including neglectful Administrations before his time, have caused the plethora of bad roads across the island but his Government is on the right track to fix the problem.

Holness, leader of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), was addressing scores of supporters who were out on Wednesday to support Duane Smith, the party’s candidate for the November 22 by-election in St Andrew North Western.

“The road conditions are not as a result of a neglectful Government…For many years, you have elected governments that did not pay attention to fixing the economy to generate the revenues, and for many years, you have accepted promises from those governments. I am trying to change that. I have tried to explain to you the reality and not to sugar-coat it, but to tell you what really the situation is.

“Now, having explained it, I am asking for your understanding of the situation. We are committed to fixing the roads in Jamaica but we have to do it in a sustainable way and we have started to take the steps towards doing that. We have already started, and are almost now ready to complete an audit of all the roads in Jamaica. Before, we only thought we had 20,000 kilometres of roads. The audit is showing up now that we have 27,000 kilometres,” said Holness.

He said his Government is now getting the report as to the state of all roads which will help in the budgeting process for the repairs.

“We have a universal picture of what the road situation is. No need to block the road to draw the Government’s attention to your road, we know. Secondly, we need to make a budgetary allocation. It’s one thing to say we are going to do it and we are sorry about it and we ask you to understand, but another thing must be where the money to do it is. That is what we have shown you,” said Holness.

“There is $45 billion to deal with roads and water infrastructure. That is the largest allocation in any budget for roads. All you hear people talking about fixing roads and all the things they talk, it is only one Government that has ever made the allocation and it is this Government. We analyse the problem, we quantify it, we qualify it and we make the budgetary allocation.

“There is a process between making the budgetary allocation and fixing the roads. That is a process, which for many years, the elites in our society, and those who have influence over public opinion complain about, that the Government process to spend was not transparent so you need to have procurement. The procurement procedures are very extensive and that is in order to ensure that there is competitiveness and transparency in the Government expenditure,” added Holness.

He told listening JLP supporters. “When you drop in a pothole, you don’t remember anything about procurement. We have to do it because if you don’t do it, when you go to Parliament you get accused of all kinds of things that don’t go like that. We have to manage all of these issues, the discomfort and pain points you feel from bad roads, but also make sure we have an economy that generates the tax revenues that we can pay for the roads without borrowing, which we have done, in addition to making sure that if we spend the money, there is a transparent process to do it. We will repair your roads and we will do it in a sustainable way. We are the party that can transform Jamaica, not by talk, but by genuine action.”

In the meantime Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie told the people that it was because of the steady leadership of Holness and the JLP Administration that has put Jamaica in a position, “where for the first time we can concentrate significant amount of resources on our roads and we must be glad of the Government of the Jamaica Labour Party under the leadership of Dr Andrew Holness”.

McKenzie was making reference to a $45-billion allocation by the Administration for fixing roads and water infrastructure islandwide under Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network (SPARK) programme.

The SPARK programme represents one of Jamaica’s largest ever road and water repair initiatives.

Smith and two independent candidates — Rohan Banks and Carl Marshall — were nominated at the Pembroke Hall Community Centre on Wednesday to contest the November 22 by-election for the seat, which became vacant following the resignation of Dr Nigel Clarke.