Politics behind JUTC overstaffing, says Chuck

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has described the overstaffing uncovered at the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) as political patronage.

JUTC Managing Director, Paul Abrahams, yesterday told members of the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee of Parliament that the bus company has 500 more employees than is needed to run its operations.

Abrahams said this is costing the company $25 million per month or $300 million a year.

At a Rotary Club meeting today, Chuck said based on information he has received the additional workers were brought in by the previous People’s National Party administration for political reasons.

According to him, politics is also behind the construction of houses for $11 million per unit by the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) under the previous PNP administration.

Speaking at a groundbreaking ceremony for a housing project in Luana, St Elizabeth, yesterday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness stated that under the JLP administration the HAJ in 2008 built houses in Luana at a cost of $2.1 million per unit.

However, he said just a few years later the PNP administration spent $11 million per unit to build similar houses then sold them for $4.5 million.

He also pointed to another development in Boscobel, St Mary, where he said work which should have cost $802 million ended up running up costs of $1.6 billion.

Prime Minister Holness said he has instructed the board of the HAJ to bring in the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency to investigate certain projects completed under the previous government.