One Government Member of Parliament (MP) is urging Prime Minister Andrew Holness to consider enacting emergency measures in the repair of the country’s roads which have fallen into disrepair.

The MP for Portland Western, Cabinet Minister Daryl Vaz, made the pitch to the prime minister during Tuesday’s sitting of the House of Representatives where the poor state of the nation’s pothole-riddled roads and what is being done to fix them took centre stage.

Vaz made the appeal shortly after Holness announced that the much-touted $45 billion Shared Prosperity Through Accelerated Improvement (SPARK) project will get underway by the second week of December. The prime minister also announced that $1.38 billion was allocated for the annual constituency-based mitigation and cleanup programme previously called the Christmas work programme. It works out at $22 million per constituency with a minimum of $10 million of the amount set aside for road repairs.

READ: $22m per constituency for end of year mitigation programme – Holness

“Prime minister, the roads in Jamaica, across the length and breadth of Jamaica as a result of the weather events that we’ve had are in a deplorable condition. Not because of anything other than the battering that we’ve gotten [from recent weather events] and we have seen the damage,” Vaz said in his appeal.

“It cannot be that in a situation like this we cannot implement some form of emergency procurement. I can say without fear of hesitation, there’s not one Jamaican, including my counterparts (in Parliament) who would not agree that time is not on our side because of the condition of the roads,” he added.

Vaz cautioned that “we stand to lose more in damage, similar to what has happened in West Rural St Andrew and East Rural St Andrew and in Portland [where major breakaways occurred during the passage of Tropical Storm Rafael on November 5]”.

Vaz argued that the delay in responding means it’s not likely to be economically feasible “because basically we’re going to be in a worse situation by the time we finish spending the money on the repairs of the roads and the drain cleaning”.

Said the West Portland MP: “As a rural representative, I am making an appeal to say what can be done without breaking any procurement guidelines. But there must be a way for emergency procurement that can be shortened in terms of the length of time if not, with the weather events that we have had and the weather events to come, we’re going to be in a perilous situation prime minister. I’m making an appeal as someone who represents a rural constituency that has been affected”.

While Holness did not respond directly to Vaz, he urged Jamaicans to exercise a little more patience as the administration takes steps to address the problem. He also pointed out that the procurement process must be followed.

Speaking of the SPARK, Holness said “there are many steps that have to be taken for such a programme to be effected. There’re many agencies that have to coordinate; we have to follow all the regulations, we haven’t skipped any or cut any, we try to follow all the rules …”