Underfunded NWA can only react, says Hunter

“Gross underfunding” has tied the hands of the National Works Agency (NWA) from addressing decades-old deficiencies in Jamaica’s road infrastructure, Chief Executive Officer E.G. Hunter has said.

Hunter said that budgetary constraints restricted the agency’s priorities towards repair rather than damage mitigation.

“The NWA is grossly underfunded, but we try to do what we can with what we get because we understand the limitation of the fiscal apparatus,” he said at the end of Tuesday’s meeting of Parliament’s Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee.

“Because it comes from the central treasury, the amount available to the sector would be dependent on the Government’s fiscal fortunes and what are the other competing needs for Government’s money,” the NWA boss added.

Hunter said that some jurisdictions had provisions for a dedicated fund for road maintenance usually funded by a petrol tax.

“So if you examine places like New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and Japan, for example, road maintenance and reconstruction is funded by way of a dedicated fund that does not depend necessarily on the physical health of the country,” Hunter said.

“So as long as people purchase gas, a percentage would go towards road maintenance. It is the preferred model rather than what obtains now.”

Jamaica’s petrol tax is not exclusively channelled to road maintenance.

Hunter told the Infrastructure and Physical Development Committee that an examination of the budgetary allocation for the last six fiscal years showed that the original provisions were inadequate.

He said that although there have been periodic increases, those adjustments have been occasioned by severe weather, preventing the NWA from efficiently planning resilience.

Expenditure has remained relatively flat for river-training activities, cleaning of gullies, and bridge development and construction between the years 2015-2016 and 2020-2021.

paul.clarke@gleanerjm.com