Building blockades

Aubyn Hill, financial Gleaner COLUMNIST

It is amazing how our elected officials abuse us and our weak and desperate economy.

This fledgling and growth-avoiding economy needs all the help it can get, and our municipalities and many parish councils appear to be hell-bent on blocking numerous building permit requests that cross their door.

This behaviour is certainly totally against increased economic activity and growth and employment of Jamaicans, probably is warped by immorality, and the result, if not criminal itself, is causing criminal behaviour and increased murders. Idle and hungry young men will find evil acts to commit.

Don't get alarmed that I am overstating the case.

Consider this statement: "There are billions of dollars worth of investments that are being held up in the government apparatus somewhere which, unlocked, would add a per cent or two to our growth rate, and we just need to do that".

That comment was made by Dr Phillips at the briefing on the September fiscal numbers when we passed the first of 15 IMF reviews under the Extended Fund Facility.

Dr Phillips had promised to get the blockages out of the way and practically all Jamaicans — a few well-placed ones may harbour an opposite view — would love to be rid of this corrupt red tape forever.

We Jamaicans would really appreciate if our finance minister, our prime minister, mayors and councillors would bind their collective wills and cut through that infuriating term which is corrupting, business-blocking, unemployment-boosting and, sadly, rhymes with scrap.

Do bear in mind that all 14 councils are controlled by the People's National Party, which is led by our prime minister, and that has a two-thirds majority in the powerful lower House of Parliament.

Frankly, I do not understand how such an important blockage can occur and continue so painfully long in such an important organ of the governing party's political body.

EXERCISE IN FRUSTRATION

I will use just two examples to bring home the frustration of protective builders and the stupidity or venality, or both, of some in the Government's building permits "apparatus" — to use Dr Phillip's word.

The first concerns a permit request from a businessman to have his commercial building renovated.

He is a wealthy, established and proper businessman, and given the respect he has for his reputation he commissioned one of Jamaica's top architects and a similarly qualified and respected quantity surveyor to secure the necessary government approvals.

He and his professional team followed all the official requirements of the KSAC and over a year later, this accomplished team simply cannot get the plans approved.

My friend is completely unwilling to spend one nanosecond considering any engagement with venality.

The second is an equally wealthy but more prominent businessman, who has held and holds very public positions in the business community.

He has applied to renovate his house — using the same calibre of building professionals as the first businessman — and for over two years he has been given the run-around and cannot get the required permit to start building.

He also sternly refuses to pay any bribes. These two buildings would engage contractors and their workers numbering up to 100.

If these two wealthy and influential businessmen find it so ridiculously difficult to secure building permits to spend their own money in Jamaica and employ other Jamaicans, can you imagine what poor, poorly educated or uneducated Jamaicans have to go through to secure a simple building permit from our own government bodies?

The Government needs to move to a place of automatic approvals.

It would work like this: The KSAC, parish council, NEPA and any other government body would get 90 days to assess and approve or reject a building permit request. A rejection must be accompanied by a very clearly worded and very specific set of reasons needed to remedy the causes for rejection.

If a prospective builder's request is not answered in 90 days and that builder used licensed professional architects and quantity surveyors, in good standing, to submit his or her permit request, then the law should be changed to allow the builder to go ahead and, most importantly, not pay any fees or fines.

Since the parish councils and the KSAC depend a great deal on these fees from the building permits to help meet their expenses, we would see a speeding up in the granting of permits.

REQUISITE CHANGES

There are pervasive allegations that key persons in the building permit approval process subtly, and sometimes more openly, ask for or give indications that they will accept a bribe.

The conversation may sound like this, I am told: 'This approval is going to tek a long time to get done and approved. We have hundreds to review and pass. Anyway, I am willing to spend my weekend reviewing and pushing it through, but you know is back-to-school time and I have two pickney at such-and-such a school (or mi wife sick, or a man mash up mi car last week) and school fees are tight'.

The conversation is left to hang and the willing and unwilling bribe payer gets the message.

If Minister Phillips and the prime minister seriously intend to effect change, they will have to lean on their party-controlled councillors to make the necessary people changes in order to weed out the bribe takers and permit-blocking officials and bureaucrats.

It is said that the knowledge is ubiquitous among the powers that be, as to who are the bribe takers.

In some cases, these councils need proper professionals, and/or more of them to enable government bodies to do their job on a more timely and effective basis.

The need is great to jump start the economy. The construction industry is waiting to build.

Builders need their permits to start the work and employ thousands of unemployed, needy and angry Jamaicans.

Aubyn Hill is the CEO of Corporate Strategies Limited and was an international banker for more than 25 years. Email: writerhill@gmail.com. Twitter: @HillAubyn. Facebook: facebook.com/Corporate.Strategies.