ODPEM, JDF to be restocked with hurricane donation
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The Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) and the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) are to receive a share of $1.4 billion in hurricane-recovery donations to replenish emergency building supplies, largely exhausted during post–Hurricane Melissa repairs.
Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness announced the move during a Labour Day visit to Lewis Town Early Childhood Institution in Brompton, St Elizabeth. He said stocks of donated construction materials, used to repair homes in hurricane-hit communities, have been nearly depleted.
“We are going to restock the JDF and ODPEM with building materials, we have the funds to do it now, so that you [the JDF and ODPEM] can go on to do another 500 roofs,” he said.
Holness also defended the government’s handling of the funds, arguing that it had avoided rushing to spend in the hurricane’s immediate aftermath, when large volumes of humanitarian aid were already flowing into the island.
“We want to be able to say to those people who have contributed, Jamaica has put on 1,000 roofs, this is the material, this is what you have spent on,” he said. “That’s something that you can see… tangible, accountable, traceable.”
He dismissed suggestions that the auditor-general uncovered irregularities in the management of relief supplies.
“It didn’t say the materials were stolen, but there was an administrative accounting failure,” he said.
According to Holness, the issue stemmed largely from logistics. Deliveries often arrived late at night, outside ODPEM’s working hours, leaving only the JDF to sign for them.
“The JDF operates 24 hours. ODPEM operates nine to five. The truckers are carrying in the material when there is less traffic and congestion, so by the time they reach here when people are gone, only JDF is here to sign,” he said.
Part of the funds will also support the government’s modular-housing programme, including a new community in Westmoreland for hurricane victims still in shelters seven months on.
“We are building a small community in Westmoreland to facilitate those persons who were being housed at the Petersfield Shelter (Petersfield High School), we have the units here now,” he said.
Holness said hundreds of modular units had already been secured through public procurement and international assistance.
“We made a promise of about 2,500 modular, semi-permanent prefabricated housing units through the NHT. The government of China has given us some, the Ministry of Housing has purchased some and I believe it’s the Red Cross that is giving us some as well, so we may get up to 3,000 modular units,” he said.
However, he stressed that the units would not be erected without proper infrastructure.
“I want you to think with me Jamaica, my government is not going to take the units and just come and pack them down anywhere, that wouldn’t help, we are not going to do that,” he said. “Whatever units we put down, they must be on a proper base because if you put them down on anything that is not firm and flat they will warp, defects and all of that, so we are going to have to build a proper base for them, a concrete base.”