KINGSTON, Jamaica  — Minister with responsibility for Works in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Infrastructure Development, Robert Nesta Morgan, has challenged Opposition Leader Mark Golding to substantiate his assertion that Jamaica’s roads are the worst they have been in his lifetime, describing the assessment as political exaggeration.

Responding to remarks at the People’s National Party’s 88th Annual Conference on Sunday, Morgan said the debate must acknowledge both the road conditions affecting Jamaicans and the work being undertaken to address them.

Citing statistics from the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report, Morgan said Jamaica’s road quality ranking climbed from number 85 (2012–2014) to its highest historical ranking of 57th out of 137 countries.

Stressing that this directly contradicts the statement of the PNP president Morgan said official records have also also corroborated the WEF report in Ministry Paper 63 (The National Security Policy for Jamaica 2013); tabled by a PNP Cabinet of which, he noted, Golding was a senior member. It explicitly labeled Jamaica’s road network as “one of the worst road networks in the world”, noting that only 10 per cent of roads were in good condition.

Morgan said that, armed with data on what has not worked in the past, the Government devised a targeted approach and has invested billions to ensure that the condition of roads improves.

He noted that Golding’s constituency of  St Andrew South is included in SPARK (Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to our Road Network) programme and has received “unprecedented” allocations to fix long-standing road, sewage and water infrastructure issues.

“The record of this administration on infrastructure is clear, structured, and transparent,” Morgan stated. “To claim that road conditions are at their worst is a complete distortion of reality when the Government is executing the single largest targeted road rehabilitation investment in Jamaica’s history,” he said.