Vaz flagged for breaching procurement guidelines in purchase of Starlink devices

Auditor General Pamela Monroe Ellis has flagged Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications Daryl Vaz for breaching Government’s procurement guidelines when he authorised the purchase of 200 Starlink devices in the amount of $12.12 million.

The devices were purchased for use in the parishes that were most impacted by Hurricane Melissa last October, and where communication had been severely disrupted.

The auditor general’s findings are contained in an audit report which was tabled in the House of Representatives on Tuesday. It is titled ‘Hurricane Melissa Relief Initiative Audit’. It looked at issues relating to governance, procurement activities and the receipt and distribution of Starlink devices.

The real time audit found that the procurement of the Starlink devices was initiated by way of a ministerial instruction from Vaz, and not by the Director General of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM). This was done in contravention of the Public Procurement Act 2015. The Act assigns direct responsibility for all procurement activities to the head of the procuring entity.

“Our review of correspondences revealed that the procurement activity was initiated by a letter from the Minister of Energy, Transport and Telecommunications in his capacity as the Co-Chair of the Relief and Recovery Oversight Committee on November 13, 2025, to the attention of the Director General for payment to be made by ODPEM for the 200 devices to supplier number one…,” the report said.

The auditor general stressed that 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 to select suppliers or vendors, or to give any directive to ODPEM as to which supplier to pay.

According to the report, Starlink devices were delivered to the Office of the Commissioner of Police on November 14, 2025. However, ODPEM began preparing the required procurement documentation on November 19, 2025, five days subsequent to delivery.

“Our review determined that 120 devices were distributed among 17 entities; of these, 13 entities confirmed receipt of a total of 86 devices. Physical inspections conducted at eight entities revealed all 41 issued devices remained unused and in storage,” said the report.

While a single supplier was contracted, the auditor general said the relevant documentation showed no rationale for the selection of the supplier.

“The sequence of events, particularly the receipt of the devices prior to the initiation and approval of procurement records, indicates that the procurement process did not comply with established requirements and resulted in the circumvention of key controls intended to ensure transparency, competitiveness, and value for money,” the report said.

It said ODPEM was unable to provide evidence regarding the condition of the Starlink devices, including details of the devices in its inventory, records or information on the distribution and monitoring of these assets.

The auditor general explained that the objective of the real time audit was to assess whether the activities relating to the Hurricane Melissa Relief Initiative were conducted with due regard for transparency and accountability.

Specifically, the series of audits seek to determine whether internal controls were adequate to prevent fraud, waste and abuse of public resources during disaster response and recovery, by assessing whether: appropriate IT controls exist over the supportjamaica.gov.jm website; all donations (including funds and benefits in kind) have been accounted for in keeping with the relevant Government of Jamaica guidelines; and procurement activities complied with the applicable laws, regulations and guidelines.

-Lynford Simpson