KINGSTON, Jamaica. Opposition Senator Allan Bernard is questioning the Government’s decision to exempt the $26-billion Pedro Plains Irrigation Expansion Project from public procurement rules by designating it a national development project.
Bernard raised the matter in the Senate on Friday during debate on the Public Procurement (National Development Project) (Pedro Plains Irrigation Expansion Project) Order, 2026, which the Upper House went on to affirm.
He pressed the Government on whether narrower exemptions had been considered and how much time the approach would actually save. Bernard said the Opposition was not against the project itself but was obliged to ask “simple transparency and accountability questions”. The administration, he argued, had a duty to show that procurement rules were in fact an obstacle, since delays can just as easily arise from incomplete designs, financing, land acquisition, environmental approvals or weak implementation capacity. If every major project could be exempted on grounds of urgency, he warned, the procurement law risked becoming irrelevant where public spending and financial exposure are greatest.
Government Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon defended the move, saying years of technical work supported by Jamaica’s international partners had established the project’s scope and demonstrated value for money. She said contractors’ names would be made public, and that the project remains subject to oversight by the Auditor General’s Department, the Integrity Commission and Parliament’s Public Administration and Appropriations Committee.
— LRTVS News Desk
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