OUTGOING mayor of Kingston and councillor candidate Delroy Williams has claimed that there are only a few instances of rogue developers constructing buildings contrary to what they’ve been approved for.

Williams was one of three members of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) who participated in the final of two debates Saturday night, leading up to the local government elections on February 26. The other two JLP debaters were Minister of Local Government and Community Development Desmond McKenzie and councillor candidate Richard Vernon.

Their opponents were People’s National Party (PNP) councillor candidates Andrew Swaby, Scean Barnswell and Kaydian Harty.

The Jamaica Observer’s Editor- at-Large Arthur Hall, who was one of two media practitioners fielding questions during the debate, asked team JLP to state their party’s plan in dealing with the issue wherein people construct buildings in ways that suit them, without proper approval.

“There are increasingly louder whispers that the developers submit one plan to the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) or to the municipal corporations and build something different. They will submit a plan for single bedrooms and build two and three bedrooms. To compound the matter is the state of developments taking place without any approval from the municipal corporations. What is your party’s plan to deal with these unstructured developments taking place across the island?” Hall probed.

Williams took up the mantle to answer the question.

“We are not aware of any great number of developments taking place like that. There are people who develop without going through the application process and there is, in law, an arrangement to deal with that; it is referred to as an as-built application. Whenever we come across those, we carry them through that process where they still have to submit the plans and we review it. If the structural integrity of the plan is fine, then we process it.

“The plans that are submitted go through two processes. There is the pre-approval process and there is the post-approval process. For the post-approval process we have introduced multiple measures to address that. For example, we have now put in an inspection regime that allows us to inspect at each construction stage. The developer cannot proceed to the next stage unless an inspection is done and a certificate of compliance is issued. We have also introduced multiple officers doing inspections and we are also coordinating inspections with other agencies. There are weaknesses in both the pre- and post-approval processes but those weaknesses, we have been addressing,” Williams said.

McKenzie chimed in to add that the new Building Act will tie into the efforts being made to strengthen the system that presently exists.

Meanwhile, Kaydian Harty, who was debating for the PNP, brushed off the JLP’s response and referred to the issue as a recurring problem.

“It is no secret that when developers sometimes get approval for one thing, they end up building another. What this speaks to is the shortcomings of the municipal corporations — and specifically the technical department. What is happening across the municipal corporations is that our technical departments are severely understaffed; that poses a problem with enforcement issues that the municipal corporations must carry out. We propose investing in our human resources at municipal corporations so that we have enough officers to do the right level of inspection and enforcement,” Harty said, paving the way for Swaby to jump in on the topic.

Swaby said he believes that there should be separation of duties at municipal corporations.

“It cannot be that the same person who is recommending for the building approval is the same person required to do the enforcement, [ otherwise] there goes [the] conflict of interest. In the case of KSAMC, there are only five to eight building officers for the entire Kingston and St Andrew. We believe that some of the funds you have earned from the new fees should certainly be ploughed back into the department,” Swaby suggested.

Hall then posed another question that was directed, this time, at the PNP.

“The Local Government Act of 2016, Section 21, subsection E, lists among the functions of the municipal authorities the protection of all districts and communities for environmental protection, yet we see a number of developments taking place across the island. We see Members of Parliament and councillors at the opening of these developments but Jamaicans have never seen an environmental impact assessment of what these developments are going to be, yet you are all there celebrating and we don’t know the impact this will have on the environment,” Hall said.

Barnswell said his party would ensure that these developments, before they commence, would be subjected to automatic environmental assessments and that they will ensure that residents are aware of and participate in town hall meetings before the developments come on stream.

“The PNP will take into account your concerns and we will ensure accountability,” Barnswell said.

Swaby also touched on the topic of properly regulating developments and construction.

“The JLP Administration brags about new codes but four years after, we have not seen the regulation. The local authority should be constantly monitoring, whereby making sure that you know that this is the intent of the developer.”

But McKenzie said the PNP needed to do more research on the topic.

“I am amazed with the comments of the PNP. They are talking about regulations? They were the ones who introduced the three Acts that govern local government. They started the process of the Building Act, which we completed. I don’t know if they understand that all the clauses that existed in the previous Act were saved [so] there is no need for regulations for any of these new pieces of legislation — what is required is to expand and strengthen what existed before. This argument is telling us that here is a party that speaks a lot and does not understand what they are saying. I want to dismiss this argument and ask them to go back and do the research.”