"Where is the money? Right here": Holness answers Beenie Man from inside new hospital facility

He added that the investment "will only endure to the benefit of the Jamaicans, who we pray don't have to use this facility, but all humans have that frailty." Addressing a minister, he said: "Those people who have been waiting so long, pardon our progress."

The clip does not name Beenie Man or the facility, and it does not say what the facility cost or which funds paid for it.

The row

Beenie Man's question came in an interview with ITV News, on the cusp of Hurricane Melissa's first anniversary. "This is nothing new that the Government get the money, the Government distribute the money the wrong way," he said. "The people who supposed to get the money haven't been getting any." And then the line that stuck: "The money comes in and you nuh see where it go."

Holness hit back on 28 October, the anniversary of the storm, at the reopening of Black River Hospital in St Elizabeth. He said the health minister had "neglected to invite Beenie Man" so that he could see the spending firsthand. "It is a lie that was told on Jamaica by someone who benefits from Brand Jamaica," he said, accusing entertainers of waving the flag to draw crowds to their shows "while they are out there tearing down the country". "Don't tell me you love Jamaica, and the first thing you want to do is to tear down Jamaica," he said, while conceding that "the response has not been perfect."

Buju Banton replied on social media: "No you wrong, we do not wave the flag, we are the brand Jamaica." Beenie Man later told The Gleaner: "I was speaking from my heart, out of concern for the people who have been affected by the hurricane." He also put out a song, "Weh Di Money Deh", saying he had never planned one. DancehallMag reports that searches for it reached the top of Jamaica's Google trends.

The numbers

Holness said Black River was rebuilt within eight months at a cost of more than J$300 million, part of what he described as a $3.8 billion allocation to the health sector after the storm.

Beenie Man's complaint has a paper trail. The Auditor General's real-time audit, tabled in Parliament in May, found the disaster agency ODPEM had spent J$26.2 million, or 1.8%, of the J$1.44 billion in cash donations it received, as at 23 February 2026. That covers one pool of donations at one date, not total government recovery spending. Senator Marlon Morgan called the audit "a snapshot in time" that "does not contain any scandalous or damning finding of loss and/or corruption", and said $11.3 billion was being spent on some 420 relief and recovery contracts.

A later report from the Caribbean Policy Research Institute found that spending on the donations was unchanged up to the start of April, and noted that ODPEM said it needed Finance Ministry authorisation before it could spend. "Jamaica arranged its disaster financing in advance, but its disaster delivery after the fact," the report said.

The government has said the money is going to recovery with proper checks and oversight. What the Prime Minister's clip offers is a facility, not a spending breakdown.