Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has defended the Government’s decision to spend billions of dollars to acquire buses for the public transportation sector in recent months while the country is in the lead-up to a general election.

The Holness Administration has shelled out $1.4 billion to purchase 110 school buses and a further $2.35 billion to purchase 100 new buses for the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).

During Wednesday’s official handover ceremony of 93 of the 100 buses to the JUTC at its Portmore Bus Depot, Holness addressed concerns about the timing of the roll-out, stating that this happening during an election period was purely coincidental and the result of years of planning and preparation.

“These buses that you’re seeing here today, these hundred buses, were not ordered yesterday. We didn’t go to a shop and said, ‘A hundred bus, please’. These buses took four years of planning and this four years of planning started with an assessment of the problem, the situation with the JUTC, the theft of fuel, the breakdown of buses, the unreliability of service, the long waits, all the complaints that we were getting, which we then described as pain points for commuters,” said Holness.

He argued that the Government followed a structured and transparent approach, starting with feasibility studies and moving through stages of budgeting, procurement, and manufacturing — none of which, he said, happened overnight.

“We sat down and we said, ‘How are we going to treat with this?’ We worked out a system that we would transition from heavy fuel oil buses, diesel buses, into LNG [liquefied natural gas], and we even tested some electric buses. Same was done for the school bus system. We recognised that some schools, through financing from the Government, through the Ministry of Education, actually had a school bus system with dedicated buses, and we looked at how we could replicate that,” added Holness.

He emphasised that the financial aspect was taken into great consideration, reiterating that the Government borrowed no money to purchase the new buses.

“Then, once we allocated the fiscal space, it went through a process of investment appraisal. We asked, ‘Is this the right thing to spend the public resources on? Is there another competing need on which we should spend the money, rather than on these buses?’ So we looked at the opportunity cost. Is it viable? What’s the economic case for it? Will it save the Government money? Once we answered all those questions, then we go into procurement.

“We [then] had to put out a tender to the world, to the public, and those who feel that they have the capability to deliver, then they come, they make their bid, then that process of tendering can take anywhere from six months to 18 months,” Holness highlighted.

He concluded his explanation by outlining the final stage of the process, noting that once the procurement is complete, a contract must be signed detailing the delivery timeline and payment schedule.

Holness emphasised that the buses are not pre-made and readily available, but must be built from scratch to meet specific requirements for operation in Jamaica — a process, he said, which can take anywhere from one year to 18 months.

“So, you see, it is coming to fruition in elections and that’s just coincidental [but] this is your Government working day and night for years to put these things in place, and they are just materialising in front of you now, which is a challenge we face with many of our electorate not having a full understanding of how governments work,” he said.

Holness urged Jamaicans to look beyond the timing of the delivery and instead focus on the tangible benefits the new buses will have on Jamaica’s productivity.

“Growth is the sum of your increased productivity. If everyone is growing, everyone is doing well, everyone is producing more, our economy grows. So then the challenge for the Government is how do we get every single Jamaican to produce more? There are many ways to do this, many factors you have to consider… but here’s another factor, what if you got to work 30 minutes earlier each day? and what if you got to work 30 minutes earlier each day in a better frame of mind? Not tired, not harassed. How much more productive could you be?,” he questioned.

Holness argued that the new buses are an investment towards improving Jamaica’s productivity while making life easier for commuters.

Of the 93 buses handed over on Wednesday, 63 are powered by compressed natural gas, while 30 run on diesel fuel.