Auditor General finds most post-Melissa cash gifts still unspent as cabinet rolls out farm relief and transport talks intensify

Parliament has received a real-time compliance audit from Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis that focuses on money given to help Jamaica recover from Hurricane Melissa, a category-five system that struck on 28 October 2025. By 23 February 2026—almost four months later—her team recorded that just $26.2 million of about $1.44 billion in cash gifts had been used, roughly 1.8 percent of the total.

The report also notes that when Melissa arrived, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPM) was already sitting on about $138.8 million in gifts linked to Hurricane Beryl, which hit the island’s western parishes in July 2024, and that those sums had likewise not been spent. Under the Disaster Risk Management Act of 2015, ODPM is the lead coordinator for relief. It has blamed the slow pace on not receiving approval from the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service to spend the funds. The audit further observed that a private finance firm was retaining 30 percent of incoming gifts for 45 days without a formal written agreement, and Ellis said her office could not independently verify whether those amounts later reached government accounts because supporting bank statements were not supplied.

Government Senator Marlene Morgan answered with a written statement arguing that the picture improves when state hurricane work is counted: about $11.3 billion tied to 420 Melissa recovery contracts. She framed the audit moment as underscoring why lawmakers recently advanced the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority. On air she insisted donor dollars must be onboarded through regular public-finance channels, compared the small early spend to absent theft rather than scandal, and pointed to modular housing—including container-style units—with groundwork she said was advancing and a rough delivery window spoken of elsewhere of weeks stretching toward six months.

On Wednesday, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green used his 2026–2027 sectoral debate presentation to outline a $145 million drought effort executed mainly through the Rural Agricultural Development Authority, combining pond liners with farmer- or community-led excavation, including a pond now being shaped in St. Ann. He said the $145 million was already sent to RADA, outlined how MPs may flag sites or help with tanks, hoses and trucked water alongside National Irrigation Commission targeting, and stressed beneficiary lists to limit double-dipping. He also announced $800 million for 95 greenhouse sites on former bauxite lands, with contracts signed and clearing begun in tandem with the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, JSIF and mining firms, aiming for completion in 2026. Green acknowledged bananas and plantains remain pricey after Melissa wiped commercial banana fields, noted about a nine-month turnaround without courting risky imports, cited a $100 million yam push covering some 2,000 farmers with another 2,000 targeted, and added $50 million to insure 5,000 farmers via RADA sign-up. Meteorologists have warned of a sharpening dry season atop storm recovery.

Opposition transport spokesperson Mikael Phillips told the House the Jamaica Urban Transit Company has shed more than $100 billion since the Jamaica Labour Party returned in 2016. He said passengers fell from 63 million in 2016 to 18 million in 2024, daily deployed buses from about 450 to 203, internally recovered costs from near 70 percent to about 12 percent, and fare-box inflows from $4.5 billion toward $1.4 billion. Government Estimates of Expenditure, he added, point to an $18 billion operating deficit this year before an $11.1 billion subsidy, leaving about $7.7 billion uncovered, with spending headed toward $17 billion next year. Phillips called cost recovery about 16 percent against roughly $17 billion in expenses and a $2 billion fare-box outlook, urged a clear operational plan for the Kingston Metropolitan Transport Region licence covering Portmore and Spanish Town, and said state-run rural expansions undercut licensed private operators by holding fares down while taxpayers fund buses and fuel.

Separately, Lorraine Finnikin, president of the All Voice Route Taxi Association, said cabinet agreed in October 2023 to a phased 35 percent fare adjustment—19 percent applied in 2023 but the remaining 16 percent promised by April 2024 never landed after inflation arguments, an election cycle and Hurricane Melissa. The Transport Authority has indicated a June 2026 timeline Finnikin called too vague after Transport Minister Daryl Vaz had cited June in March 2026 meetings; operators cite climbing pump prices and demand the delayed 16 percent while preparing a fresh two-year tariff submission.