THE Government has renamed its end-of-year work initiative the constituency-based mitigation and cleaning programme, while announcing a further allocation of $1.4 billion this year.

Under the initiative, formerly known as the Christmas work programme, each constituency will be allotted $22 million, the same figure announced last year.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who made the disclosure in a statement to Parliament on Tuesday, said the programme is being announced earlier this year, in response to recent weather events, including Tropical Storm Rafael, which affected the island last week, significantly impacting 58 roads and causing more than $600 million in damage, according to preliminary estimates.

“This is a routine initiative, including strict oversight ensuring funds are utilised efficiently for road clearance, drain cleaning, garbage collection and sanitation. It addresses specific priorities, including reopening blocked roads, cleaning drains, road repairs and constructing minor retaining walls and culverts where possible under the programme,” he said.

Giving a breakdown on how the funds are to be allocated, the prime minister noted that $10 million is to go towards road rehabilitation, with flexibility to reallocate up to $5 million from other categories if needed, allowing for a maximum of $15 million dollars for road repairs.

“So, Members of Parliament have a certain pool allocated to their constituency. To be clear, the reason why we do this is to allow for greater impact at the community level. It is to give the Members of Parliament the ability to respond to local pressures. Fifteen million dollars, let me be clear, that cannot fix an entire road. It maybe will give you at most two kilometres if you’re just doing a simple overlay, maybe three if you’re doing it in sections. But that can’t repair an entire road. So the Member of Parliament has to use it to respond where issues may arise. So, for example, you have a major pothole in an area that you want to deal with right away; there is a critical piece of road that people use to carry goods to market, to get to school and you want to correct some problems there for the intervention,” he said.

Holness further noted that $6 million is allocated for bushing, with a minimum allocation of $3 million, but with a potential for $3 million reallocation from other categories, making a maximum of $9 million if necessary.

In addition, he said that there is a standard allocation of $3 million for garbage collection. This, he said, is not only to help with the clean-up of the entire Jamaica, but more importantly, to address the concern that there could be a rise in the mosquito vector and the dengue issue could resurface again. “So, I say to Members of Parliament that you should use these resources strategically to ensure that areas where mosquitoes could breed. particularly where you have old refrigerators, tyres and so forth, you do a clean-up to keep that vector under control,” he said.

“The average allocation is $3 million, but we have allowed you the flexibility, if you don’t need it in your area, to reallocate a maximum of $2 million away from the garbage collection. So you could take $2 million from garbage and put it elsewhere on bushing or wherever else, but the minimum expenditure should be a million dollars in terms of removing bulky waste,” the prime minister told the House.

Holness said that of the total sum, $3 million has been allocated for drain cleaning, noting that small drains will be targeted which are necessary to prevent flooding on roadways.

“The MP should really use it strategically. You won’t be able to clean every drain, but certainly those where you identify a flooding risk, where flooding would affect several houses on a road, you want to make sure that those drains are cleared,” he said, noting that MPs are being allowed to make a reallocation of $2 million away from this area if they so choose.

The prime minister further pointed out that MPs “don’t get any money in their hands at all,” under the programme, noting that he is announcing this in Parliament so that there is transparency around the project, and it is a way to ensure that MPs use the funding in a timely manner and in an effective manner.

He added that the funds are available until the end of February and if they are not used by the end of February, they will go back to the Consolidated Fund.

He said that the programme will be implemented by the National Works Agency (NWA) and the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA), with funds allocated directly to the necessary works ensuring no deductions for agency fees.

“Further advisories will be issued to MPs to guide how the programme is operationalised. I’m encouraging all members of parliament to urgently put their programmes together, bearing in mind all the procedures that have to be followed. I’m also saying that the work should be done on roads and other infrastructure in a manner that shows a visible impact,” he said.

He stressed that in carrying out the works under the programme, brushing on a little “whitewash” is not enough, advising that if an MP wishes to beautify the constituency, this should be done by clearing the bushes and moving the garbage. “It makes no sense to just run a little bit of whitewash while the garbage is still there and the place is still overgrown. This work must be focused on making a visible and tangible impact on the pain points that the public experiences,” he said.

Highlighting another aspect, the prime minister stressed that while the programme is being implemented just before the yuletide season, it is not a Christmas work programme.

“There is a notion that at a certain time of the year, particularly at Christmas, the Government would make certain allocations that have previously been described as Christmas work. Some persons would use another term which conveys a kind of looser accountability — “bolo work”. Those days are gone; that doesn’t exist anymore. Every resource that the Government allocates for public works goes through a rigorous process of accountability. There is no money to be gotten without work to show for it,” he said.