Founder’s Commentary. The views below are those of the founder of Jamaica Homes. In the interest of full disclosure: in the weeks after Hurricane Melissa, the founder offered help to the recovery effort and wrote to the Prime Minister’s office urging that accountability be built in from the start.
To be honest, the recovery so far is partly disappointing.
“Partly” is deliberate. Those of us on the outside do not always know the full truth of what happens inside government, and the many public servants who have worked hard this past year deserve fairness. But from the outside — having offered to help, and then watched as projects slowed, donated money sat in accounts and families went another season under tarpaulins — it is hard not to think the worst. That feeling is not unique. It runs through the wider Jamaican community, at home and abroad.
From the earliest days after Melissa, Jamaica Homes argued that accountability would matter as much as money, and raised this with the Prime Minister’s office. There is no certainty the letter reached his desk, but his advisers would have been made aware of the advice. A year later, here we are.
What has gone right
Credit where it is due. Jamaica’s disaster financing worked. A catastrophe bond paid out in full, insurance facilities paid out within days, and the World Bank has called our system “an unprecedented test of everything Jamaica has built — and it has proven to work.” Electricity came back to about 99% of customers in roughly five months, far faster than Puerto Rico managed after Hurricane Maria. These are real achievements, and the Prime Minister is right that we should say so.
This week’s announcement also deserves careful scrutiny rather than unquestioning support. Jamaica and the United Kingdom will share the cost of bringing in specialists from Arup, Mace and Gleeds, firms that supported Peru’s reconstruction following the devastating floods of 2017, to strengthen the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority as it recruits its own staff. Their experience in Peru may offer valuable lessons, but there is reason for discomfort with the suggestion that Jamaica must look overseas for expertise when we have highly qualified engineers, architects, surveyors, project managers and construction professionals, both at home and across our diaspora. Have we properly explored that talent before committing public money to international consultants? What specific skills are missing, and could those gaps be filled by Jamaicans? None of this is opposition to international collaboration, particularly where it delivers measurable results and genuine knowledge transfer. However, it must complement our own professionals rather than replace opportunities for them. If these specialists can accelerate reconstruction, strengthen accountability and leave behind lasting Jamaican capability, their involvement may prove worthwhile. But we should never confuse bringing in expertise with building our own. Jamaica’s reconstruction should not only rebuild our country; it should empower Jamaicans to lead its future.
What has not
But capacity is only half the problem. The other half is trust, and trust has been damaged.
- By February, the Auditor General found that only 1.8% of the J$1.44 billion donated to the disaster office had been spent, and that some reported roof repairs could not be verified.
- A year on, about half of the 118,000 households assessed for roof-repair grants are still waiting to be paid.
- The government bought 2,500 modular homes for families who lost everything, yet no one has published how many families are actually living in them.
- Local builders say late government payments, not a lack of capacity, are slowing work.
The Prime Minister himself has said he is “not satisfied,” and that procurement has moved “as if no one cares that it’s an emergency.” He deserves to be taken at his word. But when even the head of government is frustrated, citizens are entitled to ask who is accountable, and how we will know when things improve.
The gap nobody owns
Here is the biggest concern. On Tuesday, the Prime Minister was clear that NaRRA is about roads, bridges, water, schools and hospitals — not roof repairs or household recovery. The new oversight committee, chaired by economist Peter Blair Henry, oversees NaRRA. That means the part of the recovery people feel most — their roofs, their grants, their homes — has no single authority and no single public scoreboard. It is spread across several ministries and agencies, each reporting in its own way, at its own pace.
When people cannot see progress, they assume the worst. Silence is not neutral. It is the space where suspicion grows.
Speed needs safeguards
NaRRA was designed to move fast, including through an exemption from the normal procurement law to be set out by ministerial order. The reason is understandable. Delay has a cost. But Peru shows that speed and safeguards can travel together. Its agreement with the UK carried an anti-corruption clause, and Peru’s Comptroller General was given real-time access to all project information, with its own budget to use it. If we are borrowing Peru’s builders, we should borrow its guardrails too.
Five things we are asking for
- Publish the UK agreement — its total cost, Jamaica’s share, how many experts, for how long, and on which projects.
- Match Peru’s safeguards — an anti-corruption clause and real-time, funded access for the Auditor General to NaRRA’s projects and spending.
- Create one household-recovery dashboard — updated monthly, by parish: roof grants assessed and paid, modular homes installed and occupied, and families still waiting.
- Account for every donated dollar — what was received, what has been spent, on what, and what remains.
- Pay local contractors on time — and publish payment timelines, so Jamaican firms can build Jamaica back.
Why say this now
This is not written to tear down our country. It is written out of love for Jamaica and belief in what we can build, because loving a country means asking it to be better, especially when the people asking are willing to help.
Many Jamaicans — at home and in the diaspora — gave money, time and expertise after Melissa. Many more stand ready to give again. What they need in return is not perfection. It is visibility: the confidence that what they give arrives, and that someone is answerable when it does not.
Jamaica Homes will keep reporting on the recovery, fairly and on the facts. We will put these questions to NaRRA and the oversight committee and publish what we learn. Accountability was important at the beginning. One year on, it is essential.
Further reading from Jamaica Homes News: A Year Under the Tarp: Melissa’s Victims Are Still Waiting for Homes and Borrowed Builders: Can Peru’s Playbook Speed Jamaica’s Rebuild?
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