MEMBER of Parliament (MP) for St Andrew West Rural Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn has urged Jamaicans to stop making excuses for people reluctant to embrace technology.

She has argued that greater efforts should be made to help them adapt rather than allow concerns about their circumstances to hinder progress.

Her comments came during Tuesday’s sitting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) as they examined procedures at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, as well as the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), with officials outlining steps to strengthen RADA’s accountability systems, including the introduction of an online portal for farmers applying for assistance.

The issue of accessibility arose as committee members questioned whether older farmers and people with limited digital skills would be able to use the new system. RADA chief executive officer Garnet Edmondson explained that farmers could receive assistance at the authority’s offices and that manual applications would remain an option.

The committee was also examining findings in the Auditor General’s Department Performance Audit Report on the Management of the Production Incentive Programme by RADA, which found that 11,026 bags of Moroccan fertiliser, valued at $54 million, had been collected by MPs’ representatives between 2019 and 2023 without sufficient records to establish that the supplies reached the intended farmers.

The committee was reviewing the report alongside matters relating to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining and its agencies raised in the Auditor General’s Annual Report 2025.

Cuthbert-Flynn welcomed RADA’s efforts to address weaknesses identified by the Auditor General, but argued that people should be encouraged to make greater use of technology

“I think we need to stop making excuses. I think we need to stop making excuses for Jamaicans to not get with technology, to say, ‘Oh, we have poor people or we have older people, elderly people. In any other country, they have to get on that system because this is 2026, and what we do in this country is to continue to make excuses for people to not log on and to move forward,” she said.

She added that people who needed help accessing the system could seek assistance at their Member of Parliament’s office.

The proposed system, according to Edmondson, known as the Beneficiary Management System, allows farmers to apply for assistance through an online platform using their mobile devices.

He explained that applications are assessed against set criteria before being reviewed by a team of RADA officers, including the parish manager, deputy parish manager, extension officer and accountant.

Farmers who are unsuccessful are notified by email or text message.

Edmondson told the committee that the system had been designed to accommodate farmers who might struggle with technology, and that RADA had not abandoned its existing paper-based application process.

“So of course, we make sure that it is multimodal in that farmers can walk up to the office and get assistance. That’s one. Two, we did not just take out our manual application. Farmers can still apply through the regular manual application,” he said.

He also pointed to RADA Connect and farmer field schools, through which officers provide training to farmers on using the technology. He said the authority had seen a large uptake during the pilot phase of the system.

The beneficiary portal is linked to RADA’s inventory management system, which records supplies received and tracks allocations to parish offices. Edmondson said this would help prevent applications for assistance from being accepted when the relevant supplies were unavailable.

Another feature is the MP Agriculture Data Explorer, which gives parliamentarians access to information about agricultural activity in their constituencies, including benefits distributed, farm roads and areas with potential for investment.

Importantly, Edmondson said the system would also address a major weakness identified in the fertiliser distribution process. Under the new arrangement, MPs who receive supplies for distribution must first upload the names of the farmers who are to benefit.

“There’s an online portal inside the system where whatever benefit we give to MPs to distribute, they must first upload the farmers that they are going to distribute via this system. So it fixes any problem in the near future that we would get that information first before sending out the benefits to the MP,” he said.

The fertiliser issue arose from an audit of the Government’s handling of a donation from Morocco. Auditors found that 11,026 bags had been handed to MPs for distribution but that RADA could not provide sufficient evidence that the supplies reached eligible farmers.

A further 3,809 bags were classified as defective and discarded without the disposal being properly reflected in the records.

Permanent secretary in the ministry Dermon Spence told the committee on Tuesday that 49 MPs had received fertiliser, of whom 32 had submitted information on the distribution, while the ministry was still awaiting responses from 17.

He said MPs had been involved in the distribution to speed up the process, reduce transportation costs and get the fertiliser to farmers quickly, particularly in response to climatic events.

However, Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis stressed during the sitting that the issue was not about the involvement of MPs, but the need for proper records to show how Government supplies were distributed.

She explained that under the Financial Administration and Audit Act, the absence of receipts or supporting documents could require the Auditor General to treat an expenditure or transaction as a loss and report it for possible surcharge.

Cuthbert-Flynn also criticised MPs who fail to provide the required information promptly, saying parliamentarians had a responsibility to account for resources they received for distribution in their constituencies.

“Some of these MPs are just delinquent, and they should do their job, if it is that we want to get resources from government and to pass it on to members of our community, we must do our job,” she said.

She said MPs should have systems in their offices to identify the farmers in their constituencies and determine how supplies would be shared before receiving them from RADA.

Meanwhile, Edmondson said the authority was also introducing technology to improve the monitoring of its extension officers, who provide advice and support to farmers.

He said a newly launched system uses GPS technology to track officers’ movements between farms and allows them to record the work carried out during visits. Previously, officers relied on paper-based travel records.

RADA is also developing a database of agricultural workers and plans to work with HEART/NSTA Trust to provide training.

Edmondson said the authority expected its digital systems to be fully in place within another year and a half as part of its wider restructuring programme.