Starlink purchase by gov’t after Hurricane Melissa breached procurement law, says Auditor General report

The acquisition of 200 Starlink devices at a cost of $12 million following the death and destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa was in contravention of Jamaica’s public procurement legislation, the Auditor General’s Department (AuGD) has disclosed.

The disclosure was among the findings of a compliance audit of the Government’s Hurricane Melissa relief initiative. The report was tabled in parliament today.

The AuGD is established by law to ensure accountability, transparency, and compliance in the management of public resources.

The audit revealed that the procurement of the 200 Starlink devices was initiated by ministerial instruction from Daryl Vaz, Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications, rather than by the Director General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

According to the AuGD, this contravenes the Public Procurement Act, 2015, which assigns direct responsibility for all procurement activities to the head of the entity undertaking the purchase.

The AuGD said its review of correspondence revealed that Vaz initiated the procurement of the devices via a letter to the ODPEM director general dated November 13, 2025, in his capacity as co-chair of the Relief and Recovery Oversight Committee established by the Government.

The letter directed the ODPEM director general to pay the company contracted to supply the devices. The company was not publicly named.

“However, only the head of the entity is legally empowered to initiate procurement, and there is no provision under the Public Procurement Act that allows the minister to approve or initiate commitments, select suppliers or vendors, or give any directive to ODPEM as to which supplier to pay,” the audit report stated.

Further, the AuGD noted that the Starlink devices were delivered to the Office of Police Commissioner Dr Kevin Blake on November 14, 2025. However, the audit found that ODPEM began preparing the required documentation—an internal emergency procurement requisition form—on November 19, five days after delivery.

“The requisition form—which documents the procurement request, approvals, justification for emergency procurement, supplier selection, and risk assessment—was created retroactively to formalise the process,” the audit report said.

The AuGD added that a review determined that 120 Starlink devices were distributed among 17 entities, 13 of which confirmed receipt of a total of 86 devices.

However, physical inspections conducted at eight entities revealed that all 41 devices issued to them remained unused and in storage.

- Livern Barrett

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