Chelan Smith | The opposition is paying attention … someone else isn’t

In an article in August - “Back to Square One” - Peter Espeut asked whether the People’s National Party was bothered by the Government’s abandonment of procurement guidelines or whether it was “just biding their time, waiting for their turn at the trough”.

It is a fair question to ask of any Opposition. Nevertheless, it is not a fair question to ask without first checking whether it has already been answered.

Because it has been repeatedly on the record for over two years.

THE RECORD

Let us begin with March 2024, when the Government moved to raise the single-source procurement threshold from $1.5 million to $3 million, Opposition Spokesperson Julian Robinson publicly questioned how a government “with six members under investigation by the Integrity Commission” and a prime minister whose statutory declarations remained uncertified could be trusted to manage procurement without proper oversight. The PNP called for all contracts over $10 million to be published. Source: Jamaica Gleaner, “Opposition concerned about announced changes to gov’t procurement process,” March 12, 2024.

In that same year, September 2024 to be exact, after Integrity Commission findings relating to the prime minister’s statutory declarations were selectively leaked to friendly media ahead of formal tabling, Mark Golding pledged that a PNP government would amend the Integrity Commission Act to require that all IC reports be published on Parliament’s website within 24 hours of submission. Source: markgoldingja.com, “Mark Golding promises changes to Integrity Commission Act,” September 16, 2024.

We move on to this year, after the election in February 2026 when the auditor general flagged Energy and Telecommunications Minister Daryl Vaz for breaching the Public Procurement Act in the emergency purchase of 200 Starlink devices following Hurricane Melissa, Opposition Spokesperson Phillip Paulwell called for transparency, noting that the matter raised broader questions about accountability and the management of public resources. Source: Jamaica Gleaner, “Paulwell calls for transparency amid Starlink procurement breach flagged by Auditor General,” February 4, 2026.

Which leads us to this year’s timely discussions surrounding the NaRRA Bill. In April 2026, when the NaRRA Bill was tabled, Golding and Senator Cleveland Tomlinson sounded a joint alarm that the legislation would concentrate billions in reconstruction funds in a single authority with no statutory board, no internal auditor, and oversight that “exists only on paper”. Opposition Spokesperson Peter Bunting called it “a blank cheque without guardrails”, flagging its secrecy provisions and criminal penalties for disclosure. The Opposition pressed, unsuccessfully, for the bill to go to a Joint Select Committee. Source: wiredja.com, “PNP’s Golding and Tomlinson Unite: NaRRA Bill a Power Grab Dressed as Reconstruction,” April 27, 2026.

FEW EXAMPLES

These are only a few examples that show the Opposition as a party biding its time. Instead, it shows a party that has been on record, by name, on procurement thresholds, on Integrity Commission independence, on Starlink devices bought outside of the rules, on buses imported outside of safe specifications, and on NaRRA’s exemption from procurement rules, specifically months, in some cases years, before Mr. Espeut’s column was published.

It is also worth noting: Mr. Espeut isn’t alone in framing the Opposition as absent. It is a pattern that shows up periodically across commentary and editorial pages, often in the very publications where the record was reported in the first place. It may simply be a case of the news cycle moving faster than anyone can track. Still, the Government’s procurement record, the IC’s findings, and NaRRA’s oversight gaps all get treated as some grand revelation when the Opposition flagged the same concerns while the legislation was often still on the floor.

None of this required special access. Every item above is a matter of public record, reported, dated, and bylined in the same newspapers running the commentary asking where the Opposition has been. It took less time to find than it took to write the column asking the question.

The real issue was never whether anyone noticed the PNP raising its voice. It is whether the Government answers when it does, on procurement thresholds, on Starlink, on the buses, on NaRRA, on the CRH. Jamaica doesn’t need more columns wondering if the Opposition is watching. It needs the answers those questions were asking for in the first place.

Chelan Smith is a marketing professional. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.