Prime Minister Andrew Holness used the reopening of Black River Hospital on Wednesday — the first anniversary of Hurricane Melissa — to rebuke dancehall veteran Beenie Man and other critics of the government’s recovery effort, telling them: “Don’t tear down your country.”
The clash pits two claims against each other. The entertainer says hurricane money is not reaching the people who need it. The Prime Minister says the government has spent billions, that Jamaica’s response compares well with its peers, and that critics abroad are ignoring that. Jamaica Homes News checked both against the public record. Each side is partly right.
Sources: Auditor General’s Department; Office of the Prime Minister; JPS; PREPA via NPR.
What Beenie Man Said
In an interview with Britain’s ITV News that circulated in Jamaica on 27 October, Beenie Man — born Moses Anthony Davis — questioned how the government has handled hurricane relief money. “This is nothing new that the Government get the money, the Government distribute the money the wrong way,” he said, according to the published interview. “The money comes in and you nuh see where it go.”
He framed the problem as a national one, saying it was “for the whole country to come up and stand up as one,” and also criticised limited public access to Jamaica’s beaches. The interview drew immediate pushback at home. Fellow artiste Mr Vegas accused him on social media of having “lied on the government” on an international platform.
What Holness Said
Speaking at the reopening of four rebuilt wards at Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth — one of the buildings worst hit by Melissa — Mr Holness said the government had spent more than J$300 million repairing the facility, and pointed to work on almost ten health centres in the parish.
“As I perused the list of invitees … I thought to myself the Minister [of Health] neglected to invite Beenie Man because then he would see for himself firsthand how the Government has been spending on the recovery,” he said.
He argued that Jamaica’s preparedness had been praised internationally and that critics should compare the response with peers, not with perfection. “The response has not been perfect,” he said. “The restoration of electricity, for example, in a country like Puerto Rico, took almost twice as long as it took in Jamaica. Why you don’t go overseas and tell them that?”
“As we reflect on the anniversary, yes, we must say loudly the things that have not gone correctly. But equally, we must say loudly the things that have gone well.”
The Fact-Check
We tested the main factual claims on both sides against official records, utility data and international sources.
| Claim | What the record shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Beenie Man: “The money comes in and you nuh see where it go.” | The Auditor General found ODPEM had spent just J$26.2 million of J$1.44 billion in cash donations — 1.8% — by 23 February 2026, and could not verify some reported roof repairs. Donations have since been redirected to foundations for modular homes. But donations are a small share of the response: the government says total recovery spending is about J$84 billion. | Partly true |
| Beenie Man: “The people who supposed to get the money haven’t been getting any.” | Many have, but many have not. About half of the 118,000 households assessed for ROOFS repair grants had been paid by this week. The NHT has paid J$2.2 billion in relief grants. Of 2,500 modular homes bought for families who lost everything, no national count of occupied units has been published. | Partly true |
| Holness: More than J$300 million spent repairing Black River Hospital. | No independent breakdown has been published. The Ministry of Health says the work includes rebuilt surgical wards, a two-room operating theatre suite and staff quarters, raising capacity from 150 to about 180 beds. Maternity and administration works are still under way. | Unverified |
| Holness: Spending on “almost 10 health centres” in St Elizabeth. | The Ministry of Health says about 100 health facilities were affected across the five worst-hit parishes, with more than 60% back to routine services and about 20% still closed at last report. A parish-by-parish count has not been published. | Plausible, unverified |
| Holness: Puerto Rico’s power restoration took “almost twice as long.” | Puerto Rico’s utility declared all customers restored about 11 months after Hurricane Maria (Sept 2017). JPS reported about 99% of customers restored by late March 2026, roughly five months after Melissa. If anything, the gap is larger than twice — but Puerto Rico’s grid is far bigger, and Jamaica’s last 1% took longer still. | True |
| Holness: Melissa was the third most powerful hurricane recorded and the most powerful to hit Jamaica. | Melissa peaked at 185 mph with a minimum pressure of 892 mb — the third-lowest pressure on record in the Atlantic, tied with the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. No stronger hurricane has made landfall in Jamaica. | True |
| Holness: Damage equal to 54% of 2024 GDP. | The official damage and loss assessment by the Planning Institute of Jamaica and UN ECLAC puts the total at J$1.95 trillion, or 56.7% of 2024 GDP. An earlier Inter-American Development Bank estimate was about 41%. | Close; official figure 56.7% |
| Holness: Jamaica’s preparedness has been praised internationally. | The World Bank said Melissa was “an unprecedented test of everything Jamaica has built—and it has proven to work,” citing a fully paid US$150 million catastrophe bond, a record US$91.9 million from CCRIF and a US$84 million contingent credit line. | True |
Sources linked in table; Auditor General’s Department; Planning Institute of Jamaica; Office of the Prime Minister.
Two Different Ledgers
Much of the disagreement comes from looking at different money. Beenie Man’s complaint lines up with the most damaging finding of the year: the Auditor General’s report that donated cash sat largely unspent for months, with gaps in records for roofing supplies. That is a real accountability failure, and it is the money ordinary Jamaicans and the diaspora gave directly.
Mr Holness is pointing to a far larger ledger: insurance payouts, budget spending, the ROOFS programme, NHT grants, rebuilt hospitals and power lines. On infrastructure and financing, the record broadly supports him. Restoring power to 99% of customers in about five months after a Category 5 storm is fast by regional standards, and the World Bank has held up Jamaica’s disaster financing as a model.
Where both arguments run into trouble is housing. As our one-year investigation found, about half of assessed households are still waiting for repair grants, and families who lost everything are only now seeing modular homes installed. The Prime Minister himself said in September he was “not satisfied” with that pace.
Restoring the Lights
Sources: JPS restoration update, 27 Mar 2026; PREPA via NPR, Aug 2018. Jamaica figure is to ~99% of customers; Puerto Rico to 100%. Grids differ greatly in size.
JPS reported that about 77% of its customers were without power at the start of restoration. By December 10, about 83% had electricity again; by late March, about 99%. Puerto Rico, by contrast, waited nearly a year after Hurricane Maria, in a restoration its own officials described as patchwork.
Why It Matters
The exchange is about more than one entertainer. Diaspora Jamaicans gave heavily to Melissa relief, and international media coverage shapes how willing they — and foreign investors — are to keep giving and building. The government wants that story to be about resilience. Its critics want it to be about accountability. The record suggests it should be about both: a strong financial and utility response, alongside slow housing delivery and donated funds that sat idle.
The new oversight committee for reconstruction, chaired by economist Peter Blair Henry, has promised quarterly public reports. Clear, published figures on who has been paid, who has been housed and where donations went would settle much of this argument — on both sides.
Jamaica Homes News is independent. Quotations from the Prime Minister are from his remarks at Black River Hospital on 28 October 2026; quotations from Beenie Man are from his published interview with ITV News.
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