KSAMC probing Barnetts’ housing development
Published:Saturday | January 13, 2024 | 12:11 AMLivern Barrett/Senior Staff Reporter
The controversial St Andrew housing development undertaken by suspended National Water Commission (NWC) boss Mark Barnett and his wife is already the subject of an internal investigation by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), the local authority disclosed yesterday.
The investigation is looking into reports, inspections and approvals related to the construction of the apartment complex at 11 Charlemont Drive in Hope Pastures, the KSAMC said in a statement.
The statement did not indicate when the probe began.
Mayor of Kingston and chairman of the KSAMC Senator Delroy Williams disclosed, too, that the entity is involved in a “dynamic and ongoing” review process of the administrative regime for building approvals.
This, he said, has resulted in the implementation of several measures to strengthen these processes.
The KSAMC said among the issues under investigation is the variation between the findings of separate reports from its officers and personnel from the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA).
“Once these investigations are completed, the KSAMC will take all necessary and appropriate actions to ensure that the building and planning laws are enforced and adhered to,” the statement said.
Legal opinion
This disclosure by the KSAMC comes after a legal opinion by Jamaica’s prosecutorial authority was made public, detailing several breaches of the environmental permit issued to the Barnetts for the project.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions indicated, in the legal opinion, that allegations of irregularities made against Barnett, president of the state-owned NWC, and his wife Annette support the filing of criminal charges against them, but that the case is now statute-barred.
A case is statute-barred when the time frame stipulated in law expires before it is placed before the court.
The Integrity Commission (IC) Director of Investigations Kevon Stephenson concluded, in a scathing 90-page report made public last October, that the development, now listed as completed, consists of six two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom units, “in breach of the permits issued”.
According to evidence collected by the IC and reviewed by prosecutors, NEPA inspector Rhyan Henry observed, during his seventh visit to the project site on December 17, 2020, that the layout of the apartment complex had deviated from the drawings that were approved, received and date-stamped by the regulatory body on July 3, 2019.
Those breaches and others found by Henry during an earlier visit were outlined to the NWC president in a warning letter written on February 10, 2020 by Carlene Martin, acting manager of the enforcement branch at NEPA.
Seven days before Henry’s observation, David Clarke, a senior building inspector at the KSAMC, conducted final inspections at the project site and found that “all the requirements were in order”, the evidence showed.
Clarke explained, in a statement to the IC nearly two years later on November 29, 2022, that “the building structure was compliant with the approved building plans issued by the KSAMC for the property”.
The mayor gave an undertaking that the KSAMC will keep the public informed about the findings of the investigation.