ROBERT Nesta Morgan, minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic, Growth and Job Creation with the responsibility for works, has denied that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Government is using multi-billion-dollar road projects to attract and secure votes in the general election that are due by September next year.

Morgan was a guest at last week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange, during which he discussed the vexing issue of the country’s deteriorating road network and what are the Government’s plans to effect repairs across the island. The forum was held at the offices of the Observer on Beechwood Avenue in St Andrew.

“The roadworks that the Government is embarking on is not an election ploy. It is a road rehabilitation ploy to let people spend less money on car parts. It is a ploy to reduce the cost of travel to our citizens. One of the challenges we have, as a society, is the idea that a year before an election, every single thing done is because of an election. That is not good governance. Good governance is that you set plans, set a budget, and you execute your budget.

“When an election comes, you try your best to win, and we are confident we will, but if we don’t win we expect that anybody who takes over can continue these policies. We cannot plan national projects for an election,” Morgan insisted.

The minister said there is no way government can sit back and do nothing about the poor state of the country’s roads and chided those who believe that they are ramping up road repairs because elections are due next year.

He claimed that he is unaware of the date on which Prime Minister Andrew Holness will call the next general election, but until then, he will continue to fulfil his responsibilities as minister with responsibility for works.

“What should I do? Should I not fix the roads? I ask the critic; if people are suffering, tyres are bursting, their front end parts are expensive, are the critics suggesting that we not do anything as a government? I do not know when the election is coming; I have not asked the prime minister when he plans to call it.

“Elections are not due until September of next year, which means that we have eight months to an election. Should we delay national development? SPARK [Shared Prosperity Through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network programme] was announced in 2023 in Parliament; we started the procurement in March/April of this year. We did procurement in record time, at the highest international standard,” Morgan said, adding that there has been no question as to fairness or equity coming out of the procurement process for SPARK.

“The Government has to function and continues to function regardless of what political season it is. As minister who has responsibility for this area, my concern is not when the election is, until nomination day. Until nomination day, I have a job to do and I am going to do my job,” the minister added.

Currently the Government has two multibillion-dollar projects that are being undertaken simultaneously. These projects are the $5-billion Relief Emergency Assistance and Community Help (REACH) Programme and the $45-billion SPARK Programme. The SPARK Programme is one of Jamaica’s largest-ever road and water repair initiatives, which is expected to see a total of 600 roads across the country rehabilitated under the project.

Efforts to get comments on the matter from Mikael Phillips, who is the People’s National Party’s (PNP) spokesperson for housing, transportation and works, were unsuccessful.

However, in Parliament in November, Phillips accused Holness of trying to hold others responsible for the failure of his government, after the prime minister said the Government was using the projects to remedy the suffering from aged infrastructure that previous administrations failed to maintain over many decades.

“Yes, the infrastructure has been deteriorating for a while, but yes, it is a fact that his Administration has not done enough to maintain the infrastructure as we have it,” Phillips said then.