Purkiss calls on Bartlett to account for reported low levels of assistance under THARP

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition Spokesperson on Tourism and Linkages Andrea Purkiss, says in her constituency and others, very few people are benefitting from the Tourism Housing Assistance Recovery Programme (THARP) designed to assist hospitality workers after the passage of Hurricane Melissa.

Speaking during her maiden sectoral contribution in Parliament on Tuesday, the Hanover Eastern Member of Parliament said that from her constituency office alone, 30 names of tourism workers were submitted to the THARP programme following the Category 5 storm. To date, the MP says, three have received assistance.

She also said that from the office of the Member of Parliament for St James South, 20 names were submitted, but only one has received help.

“Three out of 30. One out of 20. We are nine days into a new hurricane season, and the recovery from the last one is not complete. That is not a recovery programme. That is a press release with a name. A cost control clerk, a mother of three, is sleeping in her car waiting for a government that promised to see her. She is still waiting,” said Purkiss, who has 27 years’ experience in the hospitality industry.

The Opposition spokesperson noted that hotel operators originally projected 120-day closure periods following Hurricane Melissa, prompting six-month mortgage moratoriums for affected workers. Reopening timelines subsequently extended to nine and then 12 months, whilst the moratoriums were not extended to match.

She stressed that workers have been without income for nine months with no corresponding extension of financial protection.

She called on Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett to provide Parliament with a full national accounting of the THARP programme: the total number of applications received, the number processed, the total amount disbursed, and a binding timeline for reaching every worker still waiting before the current hurricane season advances further.