By Claude Mills, Staff Reporter
Ivan Anderson (right), chief executive officer of the National Works Agency (NWA) and Don Mullings, president of the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica, at a meeting yesterday. - Norman Grindley /Staff Photographer
A FOUR-POINT plan has been devised to tackle the problem of extortion and construction site violence which plague major construction and roadwork projects across the island.
The plan came out of a meeting between representatives of the National Works Agency (NWA), the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica (IMAJ) and the police at the NWA's corporate offices in Half-Way Tree, St. Andrew, yesterday.
"Both bodies have agreed that the scourge of violence on construction sites will have to end," said Vando Palmer, the NWA's manager of communications and customer service. "The way must be found to deal swiftly with this problem. The heads of both organisations bemoaned the fact that extortion has become so institutionalised across the country that there are persons who are willing to kill to ensure how work is distributed."
The four-point plan was put forward by Don Mullings, the president of the IMAJ, and includes suggestions that there needs to be a reduction in the influence of political representatives in how persons are hired for projects. It also stressed a need for public education to sensitise the nation on the effect of extortion on the country's tax dollars; and the implementation of a training programme to certify persons who are skilled in various aspects of construction. "A Memorandum of Under-standing has already been signed between the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica and the HEART Trust to create a skill bank of trained professionals over a five-year period," Mr. Palmer said.
Further, Ivan Anderson, chief executive officer of the NWA, has also proposed the inclusion of certain key clauses to hold contractors accountable for the expenditure on major projects.
"The proposal includes a declaration on the part of contractors of their non-support for extortion," Mr. Palmer said. "There should be another declaration of the persons who will be paid under the contract, a declaration of how much has been paid when the contract is at its end and an acceptance of penalties arising out of breaches to clauses of the contract.
"That proposal is now on the table, and there will be other suggestions from others as we move toward a solution. Other agencies have come to lend support, but we need the support of civil society, there are influential persons who, if we can get them on board, the powerbrokers and movers and shakers, we can tackle this problem," he urged.
ROADWORK STALLED
Concerns were raised about the problem of extortion in the House of Representatives in a presentation before the Economy
and Production Committee in April, 2001 by the then Joint Consultative Committee for the building industry. At that time, extortion was estimated to increase construction costs by 25 per cent. Today it is estimated at 40 per cent and is often built into projects under the heading of security.
In the meantime, work on the $100 million resurfacing project between Tom's River and Stony Hill, St. Andrew, remained stalled for a second consecutive day following Tuesday's triple murder in Stony Hill. When contacted yesterday, representatives of the Surrey Paving and Aggregate Company could not give a definitive answer as to when work would resume.
