Vaz says PNP owns toll rise deal, rejects Cousins’ rebuttal

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Transport Minister Daryl Vaz has charged that Lothan Cousins, the Opposition Spokesperson for Land and Works, and the People’s National Party (PNP) are giving the public a false account of why toll charges went up. He insists the rise flows from contracts struck between the former PNP government and private concession holders.

On Friday, Cousins pushed back against what he called efforts by Vaz to pin the toll adjustment rules on the last PNP government. Cousins argued that the main pacts creating the North-South Highway structure were bargained and signed while the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) held office in 2011.

Vaz answered that Cousins and the PNP are being less than forthright and are steering Jamaicans away from the record. According to him, the paperwork shows the PNP government negotiated and signed the deal with the private concessionaires roughly half a year after it resumed power in 2011.

“Cousins is clearly out of his depth on this matter. His statement is both inaccurate and misleading, and it is not surprising given the PNP’s consistent pattern of distortion when it comes to major infrastructure projects. This release is demonstrative of the PNP’s scant regard for the truth and highlights both poor leadership and mentorship within their ranks,” Vaz said.

He stressed that toll changes rest on concession contracts that have been in place for years. The ceiling on tolls, he said, can move with the Jamaican dollar’s value against the United States dollar and with inflation in the US economy, plus one percent. Suggesting that Jamaica’s own inflation rate feeds directly into that contractual formula, Vaz argued, shows ignorance and badly misleads the public.

Vaz also said that although early steps were taken under the JLP in 2011, it was the PNP government led by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller that signed the binding Amended and Restated Implementation Agreement in June 2012 and completed the concession with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC).

On plans to enlarge the Mammee Bay Toll Plaza, Vaz said the work belongs to the North-South Highway Extension Project flagged by the prime minister in the Budget Debate. He maintained that the larger plaza answers months of public frustration over heavy congestion and long waits at the booths. Calling Cousins’ doubts about value for money short-sighted, Vaz said productive hours are wasted every day, above all in peak seasons and around major events, and voiced surprise that he must spell this out for the opposition and its spokesman.