PNP promises efficient government if elected
ST JAMES, Jamaica — The man expected to take over the reins of the country’s finances if the People’s National Party (PNP) takes power later this week, Julian Robinson, is promising efficiency in government.
Robinson was addressing party supporters in Sam Sharpe Square, Montego Bay, on Sunday night, the party’s last mass meeting before the September 3 General Election.
“We are going to run an efficient government where we are going to cut out waste and corruption,” he declared from the platform.
Robinson referenced cost overruns and delays in the ongoing rehabilitation of Montego Bay’s Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) as pitfalls a PNP administration would avoid should it take office.
“You can’t have a hospital, up the road, when it start at $1.5 billion, and it reached $25 billion and all now, you can’t get a hospital $20 billion later. We’re going to run an efficient government where we cut out the waste,” he said.
Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton has repeatedly said while about $23 billion has been earmarked for CRH, only about $9 million has actually been spent to date.
From the platform Sunday night, Robinson also returned to another issue the PNP has often raised on the campaign trail to press its point that the ruling Jamaica Labour Party is doing a poor job of running the country.
“We can’t make a drill that’s supposed to cost $3 million reach $31 million. Because that mean when you go to the hospital and you need to do the MRI or the CT scan, you have to find $50,000 to go to a private place and do that. We are going to run an efficient government,” he again promised.
Robinson also lashed out at the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) which he said has been central to the inefficiencies.
“We are not going to concentrate every ministry, agency and department, up at OPM. OPM is the office of plenty ministries, which has become a bottleneck where it takes forever for any project to go through,” he stated.
“Your leader, Comrade Markie G [PNP President Mark Golding] is going be the man who stay in there and make sure him remove every obstacle to growth,” Robinson promised.
