Gleaner Editorial – Jdip And The Drunken Sailors

Published: Wednesday | October 10, 2012

When the auditor general, Pamela Monroe-Ellis, issued a report on the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), we concluded that it was being run like drunken sailors on shore leave. Nothing in the forensic audit by the risk consultants, Kroll, would cause us to change the metaphor.

We know, of course, that much will be made of the fact that Kroll did not identify any specific act of dishonesty by public officials involved in the programme being financed by a US$400-million loan from China.

But there are plenty of instances where the norms of project management and good governance were ignored and/or bypassed to such an extent for the behaviour to be deemed, in our view, reckless, wanton and high-handed. It was beyond negligence or incompetence.

Wong in the wrong

Patrick Wong, who was fired as chief executive officer of the National Works Agency (NWA), which oversees JDIP, seems to have been the main culprit.

Mr Wong appeared to have unilaterally varied contracts, and approved spending as though the cash was available merely by the turn of spigot. He may also have engaged in a conflict of interest, if not nepotism. Computer files, the Kroll report indicates, suggest that he advised his son on the development of a contract to provide legal services to China Harbour Engineering Company, the company that is the NWA’s main contractor on JDIP.

The management recklessness at the NWA was compounded by the fact that Patrick Wong’s agency was not structured to manage a project of the magnitude of JDIP, inclusive of the separate, but related, Palisadoes airport road. Nor, it seems, did the agency’s managers recognise the weaknesses or felt them sufficiently critical to try to fix them.

While Patrick Wong is the central character captured in this fiasco, we feel legitimate questions must be asked about the authority on which he operated.

Was it wong alone who was wrong?

While the NWA is an executive agency, with significant autonomy, it is/was not an independent body accountable to itself, or to Patrick Wong.

The NWA acts on behalf of the Jamaican Government, reporting to, and interfacing, with the transport and works ministry, headed by a minister who is supposed to provide policy direction, and a permanent secretary, who is in charge of operational matters.

It is important to determine whether Mr Wong was off on a frolic of his own, and if so, why his management weaknesses – if that is what they were – were not identified by those to whom he reported. Many people will question, too, how an official at an agency could, as it seems, so casually implement, if not make up, policy as the project sauntered on.

Further, US$400 million is a lot of money – around more than three and a half per cent of Jamaica’s national output. And it is borrowed money.

In that regard, you would have expected that the finance ministry was keeping a close watch on spending. It appears that was not the case with JDIP.

The JDIP fiasco highlights the need, as Kroll points out, for the strengthening of the NWA, as well as the management systems in other government ministries, agencies and departments. If any laws were broken in JDIP, the chips should be allowed to fall where they will.

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Wrong On Wong

Published: Sunday | October 14, 2012

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer

Despite facing the bulk of the criticisms for the mismanagement of the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP), former chief executive officer of the National Works Agency (NWA), Patrick Wong, says he has no regrets over his stewardship of the project.

Wong broke his silence in an exclusive interview with The Sunday Gleaner days after a forensic audit on the project was tabled in Parliament.

The long-serving public servant was forced to resign from the NWA in November 2011 after a damning report by the auditor general into the operations of the JDIP.

But last week, Wong noted that he had waited silently for one year for the release of the forensic audit, and despite the criticisms, the auditors found only procedural breaches and no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

Wong charged that he was the victim of a political football match played out by members of the Jamaica Labour Party and the People’s National Party.

According to Wong, he was given the proverbial basket to carry water in the lead-up to the 2011 general election.

“It (JDIP) was the product of collective responsibility … . The country’s infrastructure was damaged and had to be repaired … . The likes of the Yallahs pipeline had to be repaired in the national interest, and we were not given the resources. No one can dispute what I am saying,” charged Wong as he rejected the claim that he had wilted under pressure.

The auditors found that after coming under tremendous pressure from politicians, Wong chose to ignore the approved budget, in favour of meeting the demands, resulting in JDIP expenditure of approximately US$20 million and US$75 million over budget in 2011 and 2012, respectively.

INFRASTRUCTURE IN BAD SHAPE

Wong told The Sunday Gleaner that he was driven to act by the parlous state of the nation’s infrastructure.

“It was in such bad shape, and everybody (members of parliament on both sides of the political divide) was making excessive demands,” Wong argued, even as he questioned the conduct of the politicians.

“Where were their voices when the Budget was being crafted and approved in Parliament?”

Wong insisted that no other infrastructural initiative before the JDIP had been exposed to such levels of quality assurance and quality control.

He said the selection of the subcontractors, which was criticised by the auditors, was in accordance with an unwritten protocol.

“The unwritten protocol was established by former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson that MPs must be consulted,” he stressed.

“The recommendations of the MPs were, therefore, considered in accordance with the unwritten protocol that existed.”

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