Shaw Vows Full Disclosure of JDIP

KINGSTON — Finance and Public Service Minister, Hon. Audley Shaw, has pledged to ensure that all details of the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP) are fully disclosed to the public as the works progress.

He said that the Government is committed to ensuring absolute transparency in the execution of the project.

“This year, 153 roads are going to be constructed, several major bridges are being constructed, and one of the things that I, as Minister of Finance, am going to ensure, is that all of the information is provided, (and) made available in Parliament…that the technical specifications that attend each project (and) the amount of money… be properly declared to the people of Jamaica,” he stated.

Minister Shaw was speaking on Thursday at the official launch of Kia Motors’ 2011/12 model of sport utility vehicles at the company’s Chelsea Avenue showroom in Kingston.

He noted that adequate funds are being allocated for each road shortlisted under JDIP “to ensure that proper drainage is in place, (and) proper construction is in place, so that the road will have the ability to be long lasting and to withstand the normal stresses of bad weather that is inevitable in our experience”.

JDIP, which started in 2010, is a major five-year US$400 million road rehabilitation and infrastructural development programme being financed through an agreement between the Governments of Jamaica and China.

The programme, which is being implemented islandwide by the National Works Agency (NWA), has seen work already commencing in a number of parishes, including, Kingston and St. Andrew, St. Thomas, Manchester, St. Ann, St. James, St. Catherine, St. Mary and Clarendon.

Some $100 million has been allocated in the 2011/12 Estimates of Expenditure to fund the programme in its second year.

By DOUGLAS McINTOSH, JIS Reporter