Gov’t Engages 23 Local Subcontractors in $45b SPARK Road Improvement Programme

As part of the Government’s $45-billion Shared Prosperity through Accelerated Improvement to Our Road Network (SPARK) Programme, 23 local subcontractors have been engaged across more than 20 constituencies.

This was disclosed by Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation with Responsibility for Works, Hon. Robert Morgan, during his 2025/26 Sectoral Debate presentation in the House of Representatives on Tuesday (June 3).

“We are engaging subcontractors in St. Catherine Southeastern, St. Catherine Southern, St. Catherine North Eastern, Clarendon Northern, Portland Western, Trelawny and St. James [among other constituencies],” he informed.

Minister Morgan refuted claims that local subcontractors have been excluded from the programme.

“There is no truth to… this argument that no local subcontractor has been engaged under the SPARK, that this Government does not care about local subcontractors [and that it] is just foreigners who have been engaged,” he declared.

Mr. Morgan told the House that the Government’s recurrent expenditure last year totalled $8.7 billion, noting that “all of that… went to local contractors”.

“Over the last 18 months, based on data coming out of the Procurement Unit of the National Works Agency (NWA), the Government of Jamaica has spent over $12 billion of recurrent expenditure; every single dollar of that $12 billion has gone to local contractors,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr. Morgan noted that local subcontractors are actively working on critical road projects.

These include Mahoe Drive to Bridgeview and Susan Avenue to Edgewater in St. Catherine, Passion Gardens to Toby Gully in St. Andrew East Rural, Church Street to Gravel Hill in Trelawny Northern, Bellevue Road in Portland Eastern, Orange Hill Road and Bottom Halse Hall to Top Halse Hall in Clarendon, and Welcome to Maxfield in Westmoreland.

“Each contractor is graded and approved by the Public Procurement Commission, and they are playing a vital role in efficiently and professionally helping us to undertake the SPARK programme,” the Minister stated.

Mr. Morgan also dismissed claims that outstanding sums are owed to local contractors.

“If a contractor signs a contract for six months, they can send in bills over time and they get paid in increments. But even when the contractor is finished the work, there is still a thing called retention, which is a part of the warranty process where that retention is held by the entity until the work is fully validated. In our case at the National Works Agency, of the $12 billion that we have allocated over the last 18 months, over $11 billion has been paid out to local contractors,” he said.

The Minister added that payments will only be made once the work is completed and deemed satisfactory.

“We have seen… where work has not been validated because [it] was either not complete or done properly. There are persons who… advocate for us to pay bills for work not done properly…; those days of paying for poor work are over. Taxpayers’ dollars must be protected,” Mr. Morgan said.

He emphasised that true transformation is only complete when it uplifts Jamaicans and strengthens local businesses.

“We have prioritised local subcontractors under [the] Relief Emergency Assistance and Community Help (REACH) and all of our other road programmes. From Portland to Westmoreland, from Clarendon to St. James, we have engaged dozens of Jamaican subcontractors – small and medium sized enterprises that employ Jamaicans to circulate income locally and build grassroots expertise. This is how we build local capacity. This is how we nurture the next generation of engineers, masons, equipment operators, and entrepreneurs,” Mr. Morgan said.