Education ministry: emergency measures taken to have hurricane-damaged schools ready for September
Published:Saturday | August 3, 2024 | 12:09 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Education and Youth will, for the first time, utilise the emergency procurement process to ensure that schools classified as priority one, which were severely damaged by Hurricane Beryl last month, are repaired in time for the start of the new academic year.
On Wednesday, portfolio Minister Fayval Williams told a post-Cabinet press briefing that the ministry had indicated, from its rapid assessment of the damaged schools, that it would have to use the emergency procurement process, given the short space of time to get the priority one schools operational by the September 2 opening date.
A total of 94 schools, deemed to have been severely damaged by the hurricane, are classified as priority one. Repair work has already begun on those institutions.
“Almost 44,000 students attend these 94 schools, and we really want to ensure that they are able to access face-to-face school come September 2,” Williams stated.
“I think [it’s] only 25 of those schools that we have to finalise the assessment in order to be able to deploy the contractors. So we are well on our way with the priority one schools in the time we have left to ensure that they are ready for September 2.”
The minister said schools sustaining moderate damage have been classified as priority two. “They will require significant repairs, but the scope of that damage suggests that schools can operate while the repairs are being done, and we have 126 of those schools,” Williams said.
In priority three [we have institutions with] minor damage, and [those] schools can also operate while the repairs are being done… and we have 109 of those schools.”
Williams said her ministry held consultations with the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service, the National Education Trust (NET), and the Technical Services Unit within the education ministry in order to enact the emergency procurement process.
“It is important to do this because emergency procurement is not a process that we have employed at the ministry, at least not since I have been there, and so we wanted to be guided,” she said.
“We are relying on the emergency procurement guidelines as detailed in the Government of Jamaica Handbook of Public Sector Procurement Procedures, and in particular, the section on procedures for the procurement of goods, general services, and works.”
She noted that the policy also stipulates where there is a need for such sudden procurement, the procuring entity may engage a contractor by means of direct contracting.
“Contractors must be registered, possess a valid Tax Compliance Certificate prior to their award, and the head of the procuring entity shall give approval for the issuing of emergency contracts up to a maximum value of $100 million. This approval shall be in writing and shall form part of the procurement record to be kept by the entity,” Williams explained.
“It is important for me to state this because I know that looking out three, four, five, six months, when this hurricane has receded in all of our minds and the ministry is called to the Parliament to explain the expenditure, I want all of us to remember that we declared upfront the procedure we’re using, the reason for it, and that all will be well when we’ve forgotten about the hurricane.”
Williams has also called on board chairs and principals to ensure that schools begin cleanup early, “no later than Monday, August 12, just in case in the process of the cleanup items are discovered that need to be replaced or restored. And so we’re asking for this earlier deployment.”