THE Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) says it will implement measures to improve inventory management and prevent a recurrence of relief supplies spoilage, which amounted to almost $4 million.

The Auditor General’s Department (AuGD) has found that ODPEM’s failure to replace defective storage units affected the preservation of relief supplies from mould and pests, a problem observed by the AuGD team during site visits.

“During our visits to five inventory warehouses between October 2023 and January 2024, we identified the existence of duplicated inventory coding, insufficient segregation between GOJ (Government of Jamaica) and donated items, and discrepancies caused by the transfer of inventory items to other warehouses,” Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis outlined in a performance audit report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

In its response included in the report, the management of ODPEM said a warehouse maintenance plan has been completed and outlined procedures including a maintenance schedule for servicing of equipment, building inspections and cleaning and repairs.

The agency said the plan will reflect the performance indicator, “limited spoilage and obsolescence through proper storage to support activities in respect to warehouse repairs and inspections”.

ODPEM said routine cleaning of the warehouses is currently carried out by short-term contract workers. It added that pest control services and routine maintenance of equipment, such as chainsaws and generators, are also carried out annually.

The agency said it will now seek to implement the recommendation of issuing annual service contracts with a view to ensuring that arrangements for these services and the requisite maintenance is completed at the highest standards.

ODPEM also committed to implementing other recommendations to improve its perpetual inventory management system to address issues such as duplicated stock numbers and inventory count discrepancies.

According to ODPEM, it has also been seeking to acquire additional storage containers and through a board submission, dated September 21, 2021, proposed a $19-million budget for the rehabilitation of 13 storage containers.

But based on limited resources, ODPEM in October 2023, reduced its target for acquiring storage containers from 13 to seven with an estimated cost of $8.31 million. Up to the time of the audit, these were yet to be acquired.

“The ODPEM also wishes to advise that in pursuit of a new warehouse location, attempts to identify a suitable site in north-east Jamaica were unsuccessful. Through dialogue with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), the ODPEM has made in runs for a new site to be located at Twickenham Park, St Catherine,” the entity said.

The AuGD report also revealed that despite identifying the need to replace the central air conditioning unit at its head office in 2019 and receiving $32.84 million for its procurement, ODPEM failed to replace the unit. This resulted in funds remaining unused for more than five years and the head office closed for approximately two months in 2023 due to air quality challenges.

ODPEM said it is still experiencing difficulties with this acquisition and pointed to a request it made to its parent ministry, Local Government and Community Development, for $60 million in the 2024/2025 budget for replacement of the unit which was not supported.

“Continued representation will be made,” ODPEM said.