Emergency contracts top $5 billion since Hurricane Melissa, says finance ministry official

The Government estimates that, as of January 8 this year, the value of emergency procurement contracts has exceeded $5 billion since the passage of Hurricane Melissa in October 2025.

Jovell Barrett, the chief public procurement policy officer at the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service said the emergency procurement facility has been used to provide essential support and aid.

He told JIS News that the breakdown of contracts awarded, as published on the Government of Jamaica Electronic Procurement Portal (GOJEP), ranges from road repair works to the provision of relief items.

“It [spans] procurement of container homes by the NHT (National Housing Trust). It includes supplies by the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM), where they would have published notices for food items that they would have procured," he said.

Barrett also pointed to "activities by the NSWMA (National Solid Waste Management Authority), by the NWC (National Water Commission), in terms of their response to the emergency procurement of trucks, water tanks, tipper trucks… and responses from the Ministry of Agriculture [Fisheries and Mining]".

The public can view the notices of contracts awarded to gain an understanding of expenditure, to date.

“It’s a broad category of items that have been procured in response to Hurricane Melissa. Citizens can log on to GOJEP and click the contract award notice tab, and then you can filter by the procurement method. You can select emergency procurement procedure as the filter, and then it will populate all of the emergency notices that have been published,” Barrett stated.

GOJEP is the Government’s online platform for public procurement, where ministries, departments, and agencies advertise tenders, invite bids, issue contracts, and manage procurement processes.

Barrett explained that contract award notices must be published on GOJEP within 30 days of the award date. Consequently, not all contracts are currently reflected on the system.

Barrett noted that several procuring entities are only now publishing their notices, and once this process is complete, a more accurate figure will be available.

The Public Procurement Act of 2015 provides for emergency procurement but restricted it to single-source procurement.

In 2025, the law was amended to exempt emergency procurement from the standard methods and processes required under normal circumstances.

Hurricane Melissa struck Jamaica on October 28, 2025, killing at least 45 persons and leaving damage estimated at over US$8.8 billion (J$1.4 trillion).

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