KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaica’s main opposition party has launched a scathing rebuke of the national government after a damning auditor general report revealed that just a tiny fraction of donated hurricane relief funds have actually been deployed to support affected communities. As of February 23, 2026, the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM) had only spent $26.2 million of the $1.44 billion raised in donations following the catastrophic Category 5 Hurricane Melissa — that equals less than 2% of the total pledged funds. The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has labeled this gross under-spending a deliberate “wicked act” against vulnerable Jamaican households still reeling from the storm’s destruction.
Addressing reporters at a PNP press briefing on Monday, Dr. Angela Brown Burke, the party’s spokesperson on Social Protection and Social Transformation, emphasized that the slow disbursement of critical relief resources is particularly unacceptable given the unprecedented scale of damage Hurricane Melissa left in its wake.
“Most Jamaicans have not forgotten just how extensive the harm from this storm was. Late last year, the Red Cross calculated that more than 156,000 residential properties suffered damage, and close to 90,000 families were directly impacted by the hurricane,” Brown Burke told journalists.
“Even if every dollar donated had been put to use immediately, there would still have been an unmet gap in support for affected families. That makes it all the more outrageous that $1.44 billion in relief is sitting untouched with no clear plan to get it to the people who need it. This is nothing short of a wicked act against our most vulnerable citizens,” she added.
The shadow cabinet minister went on to stress that all donations were earmarked explicitly for delivering urgent shelter and life-saving assistance to survivors of the storm. In her view, the auditor general’s independent review lays bare deep, systemic failures in governance, financial oversight, and public accountability across the entire national hurricane relief program.
“The findings are damning: millions of dollars in funds and critical relief supplies cannot be independently traced or verified, and the Jamaican citizens who need support most are left completely without protection,” Brown Burke said.
The real-time audit of the Hurricane Melissa Relief Initiative, which also reviewed financial management and procurement processes under the government’s flagship Roof Restoration Programme (ROOF), uncovered a host of additional accounting irregularities. Audit investigators found that $34 million worth of roofing materials earmarked for home repairs cannot be properly accounted for, due to widespread missing signed delivery slips and official goods received notes. On top of that, more than $141.1 million in recorded committed expenditure has no supporting, verified payment documentation on file.
Brown Burke has issued a series of clear demands to the ruling government to address the audit’s findings, starting with full public transparency. She is calling on authorities to publish a complete, detailed list of all ROOF programme beneficiaries, including parish-level breakdowns of recipients and clear documentation of the eligibility criteria used to select which households receive support.
“We also require independent, third-party verification of all completed home repair work that the government has reported. That is non-negotiable. We are already hearing reports of discrepancies: homeowners who repaired their own properties using a mix of personal savings and limited government assistance check their parish office records, only to find the work is incorrectly listed as completed by the Jamaica Defence Force. These inconsistencies need to be sorted out immediately for the public to trust this process,” Brown Burke explained.
She also called on government agencies to extend greater dignity and respect to Jamaican families that have been forced to stay in emergency shelters after their homes were destroyed or damaged by Hurricane Melissa. Closing her remarks, Brown Burke urged the ruling administration to prioritize the needs of storm survivors.
“I am calling on the Government to find its conscience, and commit to doing better by the Jamaican people who rely on this support,” she said.