(Jamaica Observer) SALEM, St Ann — The Jamaica Emergency Employment Programme (JEEP) swerved off course yesterday when it failed to start as the highly-touted work programme Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller was set to launch here.
Simpson Miller, without giving reasons, backtracked on her previous announcement of the launch of JEEP and instead unveiled another initiative that she called ‘Performance-Based Routine Road Maintenance Project’ for the North Coast Highway.
“This is not the launch of JEEP. The fact, however, is this programme that we are launching today is in keeping with the JEEP concept which is to create productive work for our people,” said Simpson Miller, her serious demeanour masking obvious embarrassment.
She added that aspects of the JEEP would be rolled out in the weeks ahead, particularly in the areas of agriculture, construction, transportation and information communication technology (ICT).
The prime minister, in addressing the People’s National Party (PNP) National Executive Council (NEC) meeting at Sunset Jamaica Grande Resort in Ocho Rios last Sunday, said the first phrase of JEEP would have been launched yesterday and was expected to provide 700 jobs in seven parishes.
The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) immediately criticised the programme, accusing the PNP of rebranding an initiative it conceptualised while it was in government.
“It’s clear that JEEP, as announced, is misleading the public that the Government has created 700 new jobs, when in fact this programme was already in train,” the Opposition spokesman on transport and works, Karl Samuda said in a news release Monday.
According to Samuda, the Ministry of Finance had initiated a loan from the Inter-Amercian Development Bank (IDB), and a memorandum of understanding was signed on December 5 last year with the Ministry of Transport and Works and the National Solid Waste Management Authority (NSWMA) to implement a comprehensive road maintenance programme on the North Coast Highway from Negril to Port Antonio.
Dr Omar Davies, the new transport and works minister, had prepared a radio audience yesterday morning, saying that JEEP would not be launched as previously announced. But he declined to elaborate.
Simpson Miller later told a large gathering, which included a representative from the IDB, several PNP Members of Parliament, Cabinet ministers and representatives of state agencies, that Davies would soon announce the launch of JEEP, which she described as being in good condition “with a good running engine and brand new spare tyres”.
“I am not going to waste any time to deal with trivial matters, because the interest of the nation is more important than being distracted to deal with any trivial matters,” Simpson Miller said as she hit back at those who have been criticising the programme.
Speaking before Simpson Miller, the transport and works minister said the Government was not playing “one-upmanship” adding that the current administration believed in continuity once the programme “is sensible”.
“We believe in continuity where there are sensible programmes which were on stream, and this is one sensible programme,” Dr. Davies said. “Even whilst we hail this sensible programme it is instructive that what this programme is about — maintenance, employing people — is precisely what we are criticised for putting forward.”