A $370 billion question: Who is Jamaica building?

Meet Samantha

She’s 32, and part of a generation trying to stretch every monthly pay cheque and cover rent while helping ageing parents and relatives get by. She isn’t reading Integrity Commission or auditor general’s reports. And a headline about J$370 billion in government contracts reads like noise to her.

It certainly isn’t noise. However, it is her roads, the medical care available to loved ones, whether she can afford to run the A/C to cool her bedroom, cost of living, and if her generation will own property that preoccupy her daily thoughts.

She may never open the most recent IC report, but she will definitely live the outcome.

Missing Competition

According to figures presented by the Integrity Commission for the 2025–2026 financial year, Jamaica’s public bodies reported 34,398 contract awards valued at approximately J$370.68 billion.

Mr Kevon Stephenson, the Integrity Commission’s director of investigation, explained that single-source and emergency procurement together accounted for 70.5 per cent of those awards by number. In other words, more than seven in every 10 reported contracts were awarded outside the ordinary open-bidding process.

Meanwhile, restrictive bidding accounted for another 25 per cent of contracts by number and 31 per cent of total contract value, the largest value share attributed to any individual procurement method.

Under restrictive bidding, competition exists, but it is limited to a selected group of invited suppliers rather than being opened to the wider market.

Now, those figures must be read carefully. They do not mean that 70.5 per cent of Jamaica’s procurement dollars went through single-source or emergency contracting. That percentage refers to the number of awards, not their value. Nor do the figures, on their own, show corruption, favouritism, or concentration among particular contractors.

They do, however, sound the alarm on a significant issue, which is that open competition accounted for only a small share of the reported contract volume while the lion’s share of contract value was awarded through a process limited to invited suppliers.

While that pattern is impatient of scrutiny, it also requires context because there are at least three operational realities that explain why such procurement methods exist.

Speed saves lives – after a hurricane destroys a water system or a major road collapses, waiting months for tenders is not responsible. Emergency procurement exists for scenarios like these.

The reported overrun figure was relatively modest, In a separate reporting exercise, public bodies disclosed approximately J$3.4 billion in cost overruns, variations and other price adjustments against approximately J$393 billion in contracts, which Mr Stephenson described as modest by international standards.

Some markets are limited – For specialised areas such as proprietary technology, highly technical equipment or complex civil works, the number of capable or authorised suppliers are small, and open tender won’t create competition.

Still, we can’t escape the reality of worrying long-term structural consequences. For example:

Public spending becoming concentrated – Every worker and business contributes to public procurement through taxes. When limited or non-open procurement methods dominate contract volume, we risk opportunities remaining concentrated among established suppliers already known to public bodies that possess the capacity to respond quickly.

MSMEs lose a ladder that helps growth - Open competition is one way MSMEs establish a performance record, strengthen credibility with lenders, and most importantly, earn opportunities to grow. If access is consistently limited to invited or previously known suppliers, it becomes exceptionally harder for the next generation of Jamaican businesses.

Exceptions begin to feel permanent – Single-source and emergency procurement are not the same and should not be treated as interchangeable. The combined figure nonetheless raises important questions about planning, competition, and procurement discipline.

I am on record, and perhaps at this point even a broken record, that procurement is far more than government spending. It is one of the country’s largest engines of wealth creation. It is also a confession of where we are going and who benefits most. Every contract can help determine which businesses hire more employees, invest in equipment, build stronger balance sheets and eventually, compete beyond our shores.

Indeed, as you read this, procurement policy is shaping and even cementing the private sector Jamaica will have 10 years from now.

Implications for Small Businesses

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners may read this as a governance issue. Yes. However, there is another issue buried beneath the headlines we need to unearth. For years, we have encouraged entrepreneurs to “get procurement ready”. Go beyond formalising the business and register on GOJEP, keep tax compliance certificates current, build internal capacity, invest in systems. Spend the money then wait for opportunities.

Valid advice IF opportunities are primarily created through open competition.

But if more than seven in every 10 reported contract awards never enter that arena, then we need to get real: What does it cost for a business to spend months, or even years, preparing for opportunities it was never realistically positioned to compete for?

Those costs are substantial yet almost never acknowledged. Capital tied up in compliance, management focus diverted, investment delayed, and opportunities forgone. Years spent preparing for a market that may never meaningfully open.

The hidden cost can’t simplistically be measured by contracts a business failed to win. Instead, it is the investment entrepreneurs are repeatedly asked to make to earn the right to compete.

Now let me state clearly, I am not making arguments against formalisation, professionalism, or tax compliance. Every serious business should invest in stronger governance, compliance, capable staff and systems required to deliver excellent work. Those investments make businesses stronger regardless of the customer.

However, we need to interrogate whether GOJ procurement is creating enough genuine opportunity to justify continually asking MSMEs to bear the ever-rising cost of readiness.

A progressive procurement system must do more than award contracts. It should give businesses the confidence that if they invest in becoming capable suppliers, they have a genuine opportunity to compete.

Because the moment that confidence begins to waver, Jamaica loses far more than bidders. We begin to lose innovation, investment, productivity and future capacity. And over time, we risk creating a procurement ecosystem where the cost of becoming ready continues to rise while meaningful opportunity is locked in and concentrated among those already inside the system.

Back to Samantha

Samantha may never know which procurement method built the road she takes to work or supplies the public hospital she and her relatives visit. But procurement determines those experiences. It influences which businesses grow, which communities attract investment, how many good jobs are created, and whether people like her ever find it easier to build wealth.

Jamaica must move beyond the small-minded thinking that these conversations are about contracts or bad mind. They are about who gets the opportunity to build Jamaica’s future and who will thrive in it.