Andrew Holness | Jamaican interests being protected in Montego Bay Bypass project
By virtue of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) framework, we had revised many of our laws to clarify, and to give institutional definition around things like incentives and so forth, and it was a sentiment shared across the floor that this needed to be done.
But there will be, at some point in Jamaica’s development, special projects that are large and complex and frontier projects that would require the Government to enter into direct contracting. I believe that this project is one of them.
I believe that the Montego Bay perimeter road as agreed and acknowledged by the Opposition, and the Opposition leader, is a national project. We are developing our public administration and Jamaica has done very well in expanding its public administration.
We now have many institutions that deal with integrity and transparency and compliance, procurement and more. Where we are now is not trying to circumvent the very institutions that we have debated here in Parliament and established. What we’re trying to do is to make them work as we have defined them, but the presentations by the leader of the Opposition, and others, would suggest that in some way, the Government is acting outside of the established institutions, outside of the law, and that the Government is acting in a way illegally.
NOT ONE CENT WASTED
Today, the very people who would want to create that narrative were the very people who created the law to allow for this and we, Madam Speaker, on this side, carried it through with regulations in 2018, because it is well understood that this is an important part of our procurement process and it is not unusual to Jamaica.
We must make every effort to ensure that not one cent of Jamaican taxpayers’ resources is wasted: not one cent.
The leader of the Opposition totally ignores that there was a process in place, started by this administration with Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), but continued and expanded by the administration led by members on that side called Major Infrastructure Development Programme (MIDP), where multiple times what we are proposing to spend here was negotiated and there was no concern then about value for money.
Where was the concern about value for money by the then government, now in Opposition?
In the same way that the Opposition is now concerned about this exception that we are creating by approving this order, which will allow us to directly contract with China Harbour, that level of concern should have been expressed with equal energy and vociferousness then.
At that time under that arrangement, which was a loan, Jamaica taxpayers are still paying back those loans today.
So, I want the public to understand that we are not neglecting your best interest, as would be the suggestion of the Opposition.
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