Works Minister commends Swaby’s road patching programme but calls for transparency

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister with responsibility for Works Robert Nesta Morgan is commending the Mayor of Kingston, Andrew Swaby, for the patching programme announced recently. While commending the initiative, Morgan, in a statement on Friday, highlighted what he described as fundamental inconsistencies and a lack of public accountability in the handling of parochial road infrastructure by People’s National Party (PNP) municipal leaders. "For months, Mayor Swaby and other mayors have publicly argued that municipal corporations are severely underfunded and lack the resources needed to maintain the community and parochial roads under their statutory responsibility. However, Mayor Swaby recently announced an emergency road-patching programme under which the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) is diverting municipal funds to patch major thoroughfares managed by the National Works Agency (NWA)," Morgan said. The minister, however, questioned claims that local authorities have no funds to fix neglected community streets while simultaneously spending municipal dollars on NWA main roads. “If municipal resources are as scarce as PNP leaders claim, every dollar should be prioritised for the thousands of neglected parochial and scheme roads that fall under their direct legal mandate,” he said. Morgan said Swaby has established a pattern of announcing multimillion-dollar road programmes without providing basic information for public verification. “Announcing millions of dollars in road work without publishing the names of the targeted roads or the contract details is not transparency,” Morgan said. He urged Swaby and the KSAMC to adopt the open-data standards established by the central government. According to the minister through the SPARK website and the interactive Jamaica Road Register, the central government publicly maps roads, publishes work orders, identifies the authorities responsible for each road and tracks reports of road defects submitted by citizens in real time. Morgan confirmed that the central government is prepared to share location-verified resident complaint data from the Jamaica Road Register with Swaby, highlighting the streets in the Corporate Area where taxpayers are demanding urgent repairs. Noting that the NWA recently allocated $19 million to each member of parliament for critical mitigation works, he called on Swaby to immediately share the KSAMC’s proposed list of roads for repair with the NWA and Corporate Area MPs. “Sharing project lists among the KSAMC, the NWA and elected MPs is essential to prevent wasteful overlap, avoid double-counting and ensure that Jamaicans receive maximum value for every dollar spent,” Morgan said. He called on Swaby to publish the exact financial value of the newly announced emergency road-patching programme and the complete, searchable list of all 20 to 25 roads currently targeted for patching.