CDF Committee clears final batch of constituency projects before summer recess

The Constituency Development Fund Committee on July 14, 2026 reviewed and cleared a final slate of constituency projects before Parliament’s summer recess, confirming the minutes of its June 9 sitting and reading into the record a previously approved St. Thomas West economic enablement grant of $3 million for Member of Parliament James Robertson, channelled through the Social Development Commission.

Disaster-mitigation allocations included nearly $1 million for St. Thomas Eastern via the St. Thomas Municipal Corporation; about $1.5 million for Trelawny Southern through the Trelawny Parish Council; $1.5 million for St. Elizabeth North Western via that parish’s municipal corporation; and roughly $1.5 million for another member implemented through the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation.

Human and social development items spanned cultural, education, sports, welfare and housing. Education assistance projects ranged from $5 million to $6.5 million for constituencies including Kingston Western, Manchester Southern, St. Thomas Western and St. Thomas Eastern. Sports programmes were recorded under a $2 million ceiling, with allocations for Manchester Central, St. Mary South Eastern, St. Ann South Eastern, Hanover Eastern and St. Thomas Eastern. Welfare and emergency support and additional social housing were also cleared for several seats, generally through the SDC and within a $2 million social-housing cap.

Physical infrastructure approvals covered playfield and perimeter fencing in St. Catherine North Central, road patching in Manchester North Western and St. Elizabeth North Eastern, a netball court and footbridge in St. Mary South Eastern, and road works in Westmoreland Western. Economic enablement and agriculture-linked projects advanced through the SDC, RADA and parish corporations for constituencies in St. Andrew, St. Catherine, Clarendon, Manchester, St. Elizabeth, St. Mary, St. Ann, St. James and Trelawny.

The committee approved shifting the remaining $4 million of a May 5 education project for St. Elizabeth North Eastern from the SDC to the St. Elizabeth Municipal Corporation after $2 million of an original $6 million allocation had already been disbursed. A Westmoreland Central bid to move $1 million from a Jamaica 63 celebration into extra education aid was treated as a first approval rather than a reallocation, because no prior CDF Committee signature was on file.

Members debated whether the CDF is being stretched into mini-government roles—welfare, patching roads and sports—that ministries and agencies should discharge, and whether the sports cap should be revisited after education spending was raised to a $5–10 million band. The chair said CDF administrative officers’ pay concerns would be tabled in the House and raised with the Minister of Finance. The sitting adjourned at 1:31 p.m. as the committee’s last meeting before the recess.