PM says unspent relief money will deliver ‘visible, lasting’ benefits

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has dismissed public angst over the unspent $1.4-billion hurricane relief donation, asserting that the funds will be better spent on long-term aid.

 Holness, who was in Malvern, St Elizabeth, at a handing over ceremony for NHT service lots on Thursday, declared that “funds are fungible” as he trumpeted a relocation and housing plan for storm-ravaged communities in western Jamaica.

 He said the donated funds have been earmarked for a tangible, multi-agency housing rollout, including the relocation of the badly damaged coastal community of Parottee in the parish.

 “There was some concern that the Government of Jamaica did not spend the $1.4 billion that was gifted to it. Now, anyone who understands finance, will immediately look at that and say, funds are fungible. So that shouldn't be an issue in the public domain, but we make an issue of it,” he said.

 Holness said while the donated funds have not been used almost $67 billion has been spent on short-term aid.

 “We took a decision that the resources that were contributed would be matched with needs that are tangible, visible, traceable and meaningful – lasting. We make no excuse for that. And that is what distinguishes my administration from administrations of the past. We make wise financial decisions,” he said.

 Holness argued that any donor to Jamaica’s Hurricane Melissa relief effort “would be proud to see these homes being erected”.

“It's quite different from saying, ‘Well, all of it was used to buy food or give another grant’, where nobody's going to come up front and say I got it. There is no testimonial. The house that is erected, it is there, it is visible.

“And it is very important that we do it because there are persons who are vested in trying to paint the administration in some way that the resources that were donated would not be used,” said Holness.

He declared that the donated funds are accounted for and the country will see what they were used for.

He said semi-permanent modular units will be setup in St Elizabeth, noting that many residents in Parottee in South West St Elizabeth who had their homes destroyed will benefit.

 “It will be a process that involves them at every step. They can be assured of what we are doing. And so the National Housing Trust, the Urban Development Corporation, the municipal authority, all of them will be working together and in this relocation. NaRRA (National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority) will play a critical coordinating role in ensuring that everybody's working on the same script and everybody's working quickly to ensure that the people who have been dislocated will get the benefits,” he said, adding that some of these housing units will go to persons who were sheltered in Westmoreland at Petersfield High School.

At the same time, the prime minister said the introduction of these housing solutions into Jamaica is going to be carefully studied.

 He said the aim is to see whether the units can be widely deployed and a financing mechanism can be used for them.

 A real-time audit pointed to a bottleneck in the State’s disaster response mechanism, revealing that the vast majority of more than a billion in cash donations intended for hurricane relief remained locked away in government accounts up to April.

 According to the Auditor General’s Department report, out of the $1.4 billion amassed in the wake of the devastating Category 5 storm, only $26.2 million had been used up to April.

The report further highlighted that the bureaucracy also extended to Hurricane Beryl funds, donated after its passage in July 2024 but were not used.

The revelations sparked immediate concern over the pace of the state's recovery efforts, raising critical questions about emergency fund management during national crises.

Kimono.francis@gleanerjm.com