EDITORIAL - Another era of pork-barrel politics?

Mike Henry, the transport minister, is wrong to brush aside concerns about how public money is being spent as part of the massive infrastructure development programme which was launched in Manchester on Thursday. He runs the danger of fuelling speculation of more pork-barrel politics.

Under the Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme, the Government plans to spend US$400 million to upgrade the island's roads, gullies, drains and bridges over a five-year period. This is commendable, in that such works will boost the sluggish economy in the short run and bring relief to many unemployed people.

However, we note the concerns raised by Central Manchester Member of Parliament Peter Bunting and the Manchester Parish Council about how the roads and contractors are to be selected. Mr Bunting charged political bias in the selection, and suggested that the roads being targeted were mainly in Jamaica Labour Party-represented constituencies. He said both the National Contracts Commission and the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) have been bypassed in the process.

It is a historical fact that public funds in the hands of politicians are often used to cement their parties' standing in the community and boost their electoral chances. Infrastructure work inevitably builds goodwill in a community, and there is evidence that funds can be manipulated to benefit the party in power. It is known as pork-barrel politics: when constituency projects benefit from their links with a particular representative. It is for this reason why safeguards in the form of the Contracts Committee of the OCG have been established. Democracy becomes fainter and greyer when we ignore these safeguards.

bunting doing his job

As the people's representative, Mr Bunting is doing his job by asking these questions. He hit all the right notes when he demanded balance, fairness, transparency, and value for money as he explained why he decided to boycott the official function in Christiana on Thursday.

On the other hand, the response from Transport Minister Mike Henry, in suggesting that his government must now make up for years of PNP neglect in the North East Manchester constituency, must be viewed as an indication that the old-style politics of the past is alive and well.

Even more bothersome was Mr Henry's suggestion that if Mr Bunting did not like the way the projects were selected one of his options was to leave politics. The minister was way out of line, but perhaps he was being true to his conviction that politics is about how the bacon is sliced.

If our political leaders are even remotely serious about reforming our system of government and eliminating pork-barrel politics, then the questions raised by Mr Bunting deserve to be answered - and truthfully.

We note that the matter is to be brought to Parliament and expect that there will be a full report on how this massive project will be managed to reflect fairness, transparency and efficiency.

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