Official Platform to Mobilise Relief Support to Be Modified

Prime Minister, Dr. the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, says the official platform to mobilise support for Jamaica’s relief and recovery efforts in the aftermath of Category Five Hurricane Melissa will be modified.

The modification will enable donors to better interface with the platform and donate to a specific institution or institutions. The supportjamaica.gov.jm online platform also aims to channel relief and coordinate recovery efforts.

Dr. Holness made the remarks while responding to a question posed in the House of Representatives recently regarding the supportjamaica.gov.jm platform and “whether there can be designation of the donation”.

“My understanding is that there is a way to do it, but we’re going to modify the platform to ensure that it is more seamless, that you can visibly see how to designate to an institution,” he said.

“There is already a process for schools, for example under the National Education Trust (NET), and so I say publicly, if Jamaicans overseas want to donate directly to their school, they can do so through the National Education Trust, similar process, they have an online process,” he said.

The Prime Minister pointed out that everything donated through the supportjamaica.gov.jm platform goes to the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

“The intention is not to take away the donations from private entities… . What we’re saying is if you want to get the benefit of the waived duty, then you should send it… and once it’s recorded as a donation, ODPEM records it, then you benefit from the waiver and if you give funds, as we have said now, we will be able to direct it, we’re going to make it specific on the platform so that you can direct it,” he said.

He further explained that although it comes through ODPEM, persons or entities are able to distribute the items.

“But once you bring your stuff in, even if you put it under the name ODPEM, it’s yours, so you can take it and do whatever you want with it, but it’s important that the nation has a full account of everything that came in; that’s all that ODPEM is doing – full account,” Dr. Holness said.

“So, you can consign it to ODPEM saying that you want to go and do your own distribution, which by the way that’s what they’re doing. That’s what the entities that come in with their stuff, they don’t just come in and put it in their own warehouses and go; they come in, it’s assigned to ODPEM, we note it and then they go and do what they want to do with it, but we must know… we’re talking large things, container loads of stuff,” he added.