NWA contradicts Warmington on Spring Village bridge

Since September 2022 the bridge has been taken out of operation due to safety concerns raised following an assessment carried out by the National Works Agency (NWA).

Motorists have been forced to use the alternate route through the community of Nightingale Grove Farms, popularly referred to as Five Acres, which has seen transportation time and cost doubling at the very least.

The inconvenience to motorists, passengers and residents has been palpable, but hopes were raised when Member of Parliament Everald Warmington, who is the portfolio minister with responsibility for works, informed the nation in his Sectoral Presentation in June of 2023 that $130 million has been allocated in a public/private partnership with Jamaica Broilers Group to construct a new bridge.

Of significant importance in the announcement was the Works Minister telling the nation that construction will begin “almost immediately” based on several factors that were already established.

In noting that the Spring Village bridge is one of 32 bridges across the country that the government will embark on rehabilitating within a two-year period at a cost of $4 billion, Warmington revealed in the Parliament that: “We have in the budget $70 million under recurrent expenditure for bridges. I want to advise the people of Spring Village and I want to advise Jamaica Broilers and this house (Parliament) that I am committing that $70 million along with the $50 million from Jamaica Broilers to commence construction of the Spring Village bridge almost immediately.
“So we won’t need the PIAB to review this based on the fact that we have $70 million as recurrent and Jamaica Broilers providing $50 million we can move forthwith to do that bridge.”

For clarity the Public Investment Appraisal Branch (PIAB) is a single point of entry for all projects intended for the public investment programme (PSIP). It is responsible for pre-investment project appraisals within the public investment management system (PIMS) and performs a technical advisory function to the public investment management committee (PIMC).

More than six months later since Warmington’s confident assurance in Parliament, work is yet to begin amid growing public angst particularly from those affected the most.

The Minister has also been placed in an embarrassing situation as well, when NWA Chief Executive Officer EG Hunter offered a different explanation how the process works with regards to the Spring Village bridge and other similar structures listed for rehabilitation.

Speaking at the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament on January 30, Mr Hunter was taken to task by Chairman Mikael Phillips, who sought answers regarding why all of the $1.29 billion allocated for the 2023/24 capital budget for bridges were not implemented and thus had to be returned to the Ministry of Finance.

In explaining the rationale for this the NWA boss said as per the Jamaica Observer: “The PIAB protocol has been designed with the objective of having a more streamlined, effective and efficient process in project preparation. I don’t think there can be any argument as to the need for such a protocol. The truth is that that protocol came into being in the last two years or so. And understandably, entities of government will have some learning to do, so as to be able to utilise that protocol and exploit its efficiencies in the best way possible. As it now stands, we at the NWA, we rely to a large extent on consultants to assist in the preparation of the required documentation to go to the PlAB.

“We have been studiously fulfilling the requirements of that protocol. The very first bridge that we got through the PIAB system was the Troy bridge [located in Phillips’s constituency] and although construction has not yet started, I would like to inform you that we did go to tender because once the PIAB system has been successfully gone through, the next step in the process is the procurement and we have gone to procurement for the Troy bridge.

“The tenders were returned last week. We are now in the process of analysing those tenders and it is our plan to submit that recommendation for contract award to the Public Procurement Commission in another week and a half, two weeks’ time, and then on to Cabinet. So hopefully, very early in the new financial year, we should have the contract awarded.”
With regards to the Spring Village bridge, Mr Hunter added: “The other bridge of importance to us is the Spring Village bridge, which we did go to tender for as well. The return is due the 13th of February.”

Hunter’s comments will certainly spark a wider debate, as questions will be asked whether Warmington misled the Parliament or was the Works Minister poorly advised by the technocrats at the NWA, including Mr Hunter? Also is the PIAB proving to be yet another bureaucratic red tape despite Mr Hunter’s stamp of approval?

In the Meantime, Darlene Morrison, who is the financial secretary in the Ministry of Finance, told the said PAAC meeting that the government is planning to conduct training of its members to improve the slow nature of how capital projects are advance and implemented.

She said: “We are planning to do some training, in terms of how to execute a project. Our procurement arm, our Public Expenditure Policy Coordination Division, is looking at putting [that in place]… by next fiscal year.”

“I think it is urgently needed, because it’s a frustration for those of us, especially us elected representatives, when a project is announced in the House. You go to your constituency and you see schools that are in need of repair and then you come back and you see in the budget here that those capital expenditures are not expended. Then it becomes an issue and it’s a national issue because it affects productivity, it affects the education system, it affects our everyday life,” Phillips replied.