KINGSTON, Jamaica — Energy and Telecommunications Minister Daryl Vaz has rejected the auditor general’s findings that he breached procurement rules in the acquisition of StarLink satellite devices following the devastation caused by Category 5 Hurricane Melissa.

Hurricane Melissa made landfall on October 28, 2025.

In a statement on Wednesday, Vaz said any suggestion of wrongdoing was unfounded and failed to take into account the extreme emergency conditions that existed after the hurricane destroyed telecommunications connectivity across several parts of the island.

Vaz said catastrophic damage to Jamaica’s physical and digital infrastructure left multiple parishes, particularly in western Jamaica, without communication, while Government ministers and agencies received hundreds of messages from citizens desperate to contact loved ones.

He dismissed as “uninformed and grossly inaccurate” the auditor general’s claim that his involvement breached Section 20 of the Public Procurement Act, 2015, which assigns sole responsibility for procurement to the head of the procuring entity. According to Vaz, all actions taken were consistent with the “Guidance Note on the Acquisition of Goods, Services and Works in the Situation of Emergency or Extreme Urgency” issued by the Office of Public Procurement Policy.

The minister said the circumstances clearly met the requirements for employing emergency procurement procedures, citing both the existence of a genuine emergency and the necessity of the procurement activity. He noted that the guidelines allow, subject to fiscal responsibility considerations, for procurements in emergency situations to be approved by the head of a procuring entity regardless of value or procurement method.

Vaz explained that in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, StarLink was the only reliable source of connectivity, leading to a surge in demand that quickly exhausted local supplies. He said households, businesses, government services, emergency responders, disaster response teams, security forces and the financial sector were all simultaneously seeking access to the devices.

He further noted that Jamaica had received a donation of StarLink devices for emergency response, but that these were rapidly depleted as demand continued to increase, including within the local telecommunications sector itself.

According to Vaz, the procurement of additional devices was driven by the urgent need to address a critical communication void that was hampering rescue and recovery efforts in the worst-affected parishes. He said an immediate solution was essential to support relief operations and mitigate public panic.

Acting in his capacity as co-chair of the Relief and Recovery Oversight Committee, Vaz said he took the decision to ensure that the Government could secure the available devices quickly and distribute them to state agencies and recovery teams. He said the devices were procured through the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management.

“The procurement of the devices was possible as a result of the swift and decisive actions taken, and I make no apologies for this,” Vaz said, adding that if even one life was saved or one family rescued as a result, the decision would have been justified.

The minister also accused the Opposition of being disingenuous, saying its criticism was an attempt to seek relevance. He claimed that Opposition members, including senior figures in the People’s National Party (PNP), had requested and received the same StarLink devices during the crisis.

Vaz said councillors and members of parliament in affected areas were recipients of the procured devices, including in response to a request from the leader of the Opposition. He argued that the accountability being demanded should therefore extend to the devices received by Opposition members.