Statement on NaRRA | Sitting of the House of Representatives
Statement on NaRRA
by
Dr. the Most Honourable Andrew Holness, ON, PC, MP,
Prime Minister of Jamaica
at the
Sitting of the House of Representatives
on
April 14, 2026
——————————————————————————
Madam Speaker, I now move for the suspension of the Standing Orders to enable me to take a second reading of a bill shortly entitled the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority Act 2026, and to take it through all its concluding stages.
My substantive presentation, allow me to join in the expression of happiness and gratitude and celebration of the 100th birthday of someone who served this nation with great pride and indeed great competence as a minister of education and a senator in this parliament serving both sides of the parliament. Dr Mavis Gilmore and I have two things in common. One, we were both ministers of education, and secondly, she’s actually Mavis Holness; so yes, we do have some distant relations, so I want to wish her from Parliament, a happy birthday, and many, many more happy returns.
Madam Speaker, the Standing Orders of the House helps us to arrange the business of the House such that everything is done orderly and transparently and I urge members to pay close attention to the Standing Orders and to adhere to the Standing Orders that protects both sides and ensures that the business of the House gets done in a transparent and effective way.
In tabling this bill, we recognize that there are general concerns and some specific concerns with stakeholders; internally in the government there are concerned. It is not something that we’re cavalier in bringing to the Parliament which is why at the earliest opportunity we tabled the bill in long form, refined it taken into consideration where possible concerns that have been raised, and tabling it again, but it must be always born in mind that we’re tabling the bill against the backdrop of an emergency.
The emergency does not permit us to break the rules, and I want to establish that. I have been very clear with that. We as a democracy and a mature democracy, we have established the process by which we address emergency situations, which means we have established emergency rules. We have a National Disaster Risk Management Act, which provides emergency rules. We have provisions in the Constitution for a state of public emergency for emergency situations, and in establishing this bill, we will also create the laws that will ensure that the entity is able to act with expedition whilst respecting both the laws of the land and the constitution of the country, and more importantly, the perspectives held by the wide body of stakeholders who want to see transparency, but at the same time want to see efficiency and effectiveness; a delicate balancing act, but one that I’m certain that this parliament and this administration is capable of delivering.
Madam Speaker, I rise to address this Honourable House on the tabling and commencement of debate on the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority Bill 2026. This bill is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation that this parliament has been asked to consider in the modern era of Jamaica’s development.
Jamaica has long been described as a country of great promise. We have an incomparable geographic position. We have a globally recognized brand in music, sports culture, and tourism that are the envy of countries much larger than us. We have a diaspora of extraordinary talent and capital spread across the world’s most prosperous economies. We have natural resources, agricultural potential, and strategic location at the crossroads of the hemispheric trade routes.
Development plans, consultancy reports and policy discussions have outlined Jamaica’s transformation for decades. The vision of what Jamaica can be has existed in our national consciousness for generations. What has been missing is not the dream. What has been missing is the institutional machinery to turn that dream into delivered reality to take the plans from the shelves and drive them through to completion at pace. Hurricane Melissa, as terrible as it has been, has given Jamaica something rare; a moment of national urgency, a critical mass of international financing, and a mandate for transformation that transcends the ordinary pace of government.
This bill is how we seize that moment. We are not restoring a pre-Melissa Jamaica. We are building a post Melissa Jamaica that the generations before us dreamed of and the generations after us will inherit. This bill has been crafted to deliver the institutional architecture through which Jamaica will convert catastrophe into competitive advantage and become a stronger, more productive, and more prosperous nation.
Madam Speaker, the world has already signalled its confidence in Jamaica’s capacity to lead this resurgence. International Monetary Fund, the World Bank Group, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Development Bank of the Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) and the Caribbean Development Bank have jointly committed a coordinated financing package of up to US$6.7 billion, the single largest and most comprehensive development financing package ever assembled for Jamaica.
Madam Speaker, these institutions have commended the government’s decision to establish NaRRA noting that a few countries act so quickly to set up a modern best practice central coordinating body to drive recovery with discipline, transparency, and long-term vision.
Madam Speaker, the US$6.7 billion financing package is historic, however, the assessed damage and loss from Hurricane Melissa is US$12.2 billion. That means there is a gap that public financing alone cannot close, and that multilateral borrowing alone should not be asked to carry because every dollar that borrowing is used for, it’s an addition to the national debt that future generations of Jamaicans must service.
Madam Speaker, private capital, both domestic and international, must be mobilized, crowded in, and put to work alongside public investment. Madam Speaker, this is precisely why NaRRA incorporates not just approved reconstruction and resilience projects, which are government-lead projects, but also designated strategic projects under FAST which are private sector led projects. This is to ensure that both public and private investment are properly coordinated and coordinated with synergy.
Madam Speaker, some other asked why the existing machinery of government is not sufficient to manage reconstruction. That is a fair question, however, the existing administrative framework was never designed to coordinate simultaneously and at emergency pace a reconstruction programme of the scale and complexity that is needed for post Hurricane Melissa reconstruction. It does not allow us to easily overcome fragmentation, duplication, and the inter-agency coordination failures that are too often showed and slowed up project delivery. It was not designed to interface on a unified platform with US$6.7 billion in multilateral financing, the private sector capital and government appropriations in real time. The centralization of reconstruction efforts following major hurricanes has many precedents globally.
After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, the United States established special purpose housing authorities with expedited powers. After the Christchurch earthquake of 2011, New Zealand established the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority. After the Great East Japan earthquake of 2011, Japan established a dedicated reconstruction agency with elevated legal powers and a fixed mandate. In the Caribbean, Dominica established the Climate Resilience Execution Agency following the devastation of Hurricane Maria. In Jamaica, as well, former Prime Minister Patterson established the Office of National Reconstruction after Hurricane Ivan. In each case, the defining principle was the same existing administrative machinery, however, competent in normal times is not equipped for post catastrophe reconstruction at scale. A focused, centralized, and empowered mechanism is required.
Madam Speaker, I now wish to address directly the governance debate that has developed around this bill. Elements of governance models embedded in this bill, for example, the absence of a governing board is akin to that of an executive agency. The executive agency model is not an invention of this administration. The executive agency model was conceived in the mid-1990s as an important feature of Jamaica’s public sector reform agenda, specifically to cure a defect that had plagued our institutional landscape for decades.
Madam Speaker, several of the agencies that Jamaicans interact with every day are structured as executive agencies. The Jamaica Customs Agency is an executive agency; it has no board. The Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency, the Registrar General’s Department prior to being subsumed into the National Identification and Registration Authority, (NIRA), the National Works Agency; all operate as executive agencies reporting directly to the minister responsible for the portfolio. This is a creation of the mid 1990s, a creation of the Patterson Administration.
In May 2001, Dr the Honourable Carlton Davis, then Cabinet Secretary addressed a UWI/ MIND conference on executive agencies and set out with characteristic candour why Jamaica’s traditional institutional arrangements had failed to deliver the quality of public services the country deserved. I commend this address to every member of this House because what he said then provides important insights relevant to the structure of NaRRA.
Dr Davis observed that Jamaica’s public service had its origins in a command-and-control departmental model that worked reasonably well in the early days of independence when the private sector was relatively underdeveloped and the demands of government were less complex.
Madam Speaker, I have two options before me. One option is to respond to the leader of opposition and not detract from my presentation, but the other option is to respond to the leader of opposition because as being said sotto voce, I think the country needs to understand. This presentation is not speaking about an advisory board. This presentation is speaking about a board of governance which I believe all members understood that this is what we are speaking about and that there is a significant difference between an advisory board and a board of governance.
The essence of the critique of the direction of the legislation is about governance. Yes, the law provides for the appointment by the CEO of an advisory board, recommends the members of an advisory board, not to hold him to account for governance issues, but as a mechanism for him or her to consult with on matters specific especially to the technical elements of the agencies. I think the country needs to appreciate that there is not just a significant difference but, Madam Speaker, the advisory boards are not required to treat with matters of governance, accountability and all the other issues of administration. When we are speaking about a governance board, we’re primarily now speaking about how these entities will be held to account, how policy will be implemented, matters to deal with performance.
Now, I want to make it clear, Madam Speaker, NaRRA will be established in the form of an executive agency. It is not new and I believe, Madam Speaker, that we should, as I said earlier, I commend the address of Dr Davis, former Cabinet Secretary and he observed that Jamaica’s public service had its origins in a command and controlled departmental model that worked reasonably well in the early years of independence when the private sector was relatively underdeveloped and the demands of the government were less complexed but as the government grew and the private sector became more competitive, the model proved increasingly inadequate.
The response overtime was to create statutory corporations and the government companies that were meant to be more flexible, more competitive in attracting talent and more efficient in delivering services, but as Dr Davis noted in his address, these bodies with some notable exceptions did not live up to expectations. They operated as monopoly providers of services with no market pressure to perform. The Accountant General as nominal shareholder was a poor substitute for the private sector shareholder who demand returns. Dr Davis made a fundamental point about accountability and I quote, “Accountability of these bodies tend to be diffused between minister, chairman, board, and chief executive.”
Madam Speaker, when you have diffused accountability, when no single person is clearly and unambiguously responsible for results, the instinct of every institution is to protect process rather than to deliver outcomes. The executive agency model was developed precisely to cure that effect. Under the executive agency model, there is a clear accountability in the chief executive officer reporting directly to the responsible minister supported by an advisory board rather than a governing board.
It is a bit distressing that the leader of the opposition who pretends to leadership does not understand. His comments would suggest that he does not understand the difference between a governing board and an advisory board.
Madam Speaker, I believe we should focus on this because the more the leader of the opposition gets into this business, the more he reveals himself as not having an understanding of the issues.
Madam Speaker, let me be precise about NaRRA and what we will have in place of a governing board because some commentaries have preceded as if there is no oversight at all. The oversight is robust and it is modelled on the most successful accountability mechanism in Jamaica’s modern history. As I announced in my budget presentation, the Jamaica Reconstruction and Resilience Oversight Committee, (JAMRROC), will be established to provide independent public oversight of NaRRA’s performance.
Madam Speaker, I am not here saying that the executive agency model has worked perfectly. Decades of experience have revealed certain challenges. In particular, while executive agency CEOs are engaged on performance-based contracts with accountability for results, the practical reality has not always matched that design. Often the targets have lacked the rigor needed to drive real accountability, and the consequences for underperformance have been insufficient.
We are conscious of those shortcomings. We will address these in how the NaRRA CEO is held to account. Performance evaluation of the CEO will be conducted by the Cabinet office with structured input from JAMRROC, as well as other stakeholders. Performance evaluation will be grounded in the achievement of clearly defined targets and measurable outcomes, not merely process compliance, not activity reports, but delivered results. The people of Jamaica will be able to judge through JAMRROC public reporting whether NaRRA is performing and if it is not, the accountability chain will be clear, direct and consequential. JAMRROC will operate similarly to the Economic Programme Oversight Committee, (EPOC), which was established to monitor the implementation of Jamaica’s economic reform programme.
Madam Speaker, similar to the Economic Reform Programme, (ERP), reconstruction is not a government project, it is a national project. Its oversight must reflect that. That is why I am announcing today that the government will make provision for JAMRROC to include a member nominated by the leader of the opposition.
Madam Speaker, EPOC was created at a moment of national crisis no less acute than what we face today, though different in character. In 2013, Jamaica’s public debt had reached approximately 147% of GDP. We were one of the most indebted countries in the world. We had limited access to international capital markets. EPOC did not derive its authority from an elaborate statutory structure. It was built on policy commitment, public credibility, broad national consensus, and the personal integrity of its members. It brought together representatives of the private sector, trade unions, academia, civil society, and the financial sector united in a single mission to hold government accountable publicly and transparently to the terms of Jamaica’s Economic Reform Programme.
The results speak for themselves. Jamaica halved our national debt burden in a decade, and we did so across successive political administrations, which is itself an extraordinary demonstration of national consensus. The EPOC model has been hailed globally as a case study. Madam Speaker, it is unquestionable that the EPOC model was highly successful. JAMRROC is designed on exactly that model.
Madam Speaker, the government has noted the concerns raised by the Incorporated Master Builders Association of Jamaica on procurement clarity, transparency, accountability, and local industry participation. These are legitimate concerns and they will be taken seriously. On the specific question of procurement, the procurement framework for NaRRA is not incorporated in the bill itself. It is the government’s intention that the Minister of Finance will issue an order under section 3:3 of the Public Procurement Act 2015 exempting NaRRA from the standard procurement regime and specifying the particular terms and conditions that will apply to NaRRA’s procurement activities. This will allow NaRRA to operate with speed and flexibility that reconstruction demands, while ensuring that the procurement framework under which it operates is expressly defined, legally grounded, and subject to the oversight of the Minister of Finance.
On the issue of local participation, let me be clear. Local contractors, local workers, local businesses are not peripheral to this reconstruction effort. They are central to the reconstruction effort. NaRRA is not simply a mechanism to spend money on rebuilding, it is a mechanism to use rebuilding as a means of strengthening Jamaica’s capacity, deepening domestic capability, and laying a firmer foundation for long-term growth. Under NaRRA reconstruction will strengthen Jamaican capacity, not sideline it or bypass it.
Madam Speaker, this bill establishes two distinct categories of projects that together constitute Jamaica’s path from resilience to resurgence. They operate on different principles and must be understood separately. Pillar one, approved reconstruction and resilience projects. These are government led projects that NaRRA will coordinate, implement, and oversee directly, delivered by government directly or through public-private partnerships. This is the core reconstruction and resilience building mandate that most persons associate with NaRRA.
These projects include the rebuilding of damaged infrastructure, roads, bridges, drainage systems, schools, health facilities, the relocation of climate resilient reconstruction of communities in high risk zones, the transformation of towns like Black River and Falmouth into planned, consolidated climate ready urban cores, the construction of a new Kingston Public Hospital, the development of the planned Government Campus at the National Heroes Circle, and the delivery of major logistics and transportation infrastructure, including Vernamfield.
For these projects, NaRRA will exercise its full suite of powers, accelerated planning and approval, streamlined procurement, consolidated project management, and coordinated access to the US$6.7 billion of multilateral financing. NaRRA will act as a single point of national coordination for all approved reconstruction and resilience project, eliminating the fragmentation, duplication, and inter-agency delay that have too often been the enemy of timely delivery. It will establish and maintain a public register of approved projects with performance indicators, reporting standards, and compliance and monitoring systems. Accountability will not be sacrificed for speed. On the contrary, NaRRA will operate with a level of project management discipline, transparency, and public reporting that has not previously been applied to government infrastructure delivery at this scale.
Now, pillar two, designated strategic investment projects under the FAST Jamaica umbrella. Facilitated Acceleration of Strategic Transformation, (FAST), will create a dedicated pathway to fast-track private sector led strategic investment project. NaRRA will not be responsible for their delivery. What NaRRA will provide is the power of expedition coordinating across agencies, accelerating regulatory approvals, and compressing the enabling environment that a strategic investor needs to commit capital and commence execution.
Madam Speaker, I wish to make an important announcement to the House today. Having reflected carefully on the investment landscape and the scale of private capital we will need to crowd in, we have decided to lower the FAST Jamaica investment threshold from US$150 million, which we had announced in parliament in my budget presentation to US$15 million. This is a deliberate decision to widen the door of resurgence. At US$15 million, a broader universe of strategic investors, local, regional, diaspora, and international investors can qualify for the FAST pathway. Imagine 100 projects at that threshold, that’s US$1.5 billion of private investment mobilized at speed creating jobs, building capacity, and driving economic expansion across every region of the island.
I’m sure, Madam Speaker, that as I’m speaking, investors are thinking. There are many projects sitting in various approval bodies, various municipalities, on the desk of various ministries just waiting for a signature to approve, waiting for a yes or a no. Once you meet that US$15 million threshold, you can apply to be under FAST. You will get your yes or your no, you will get your approval, you will get your permit, and you will be coordinated into the FAST ecosystem administered by NaRRA.
FAST Jamaica addresses a problem that has cost this country dearly for far too long. Too many promising transformational private sector investments that would create thousands of jobs, generate significant tax revenues, and reshape our economic geography have gone elsewhere. They have gone to countries that are simply nimbler, countries that can say yes to strategic investors in weeks or months, not years.
Madam Speaker, the theme of my budget presentation, “Building Forward Together: From Resilience to Resurgence” is not a slogan, it is a programme, and NaRRA is the delivery vehicle. For too long, Jamaica has been told about our potential in geography, potential in people, potential in our brand, potential in our diaspora, potential in our cultural influence that radiates far beyond what our population size would suggest. For far too long that potential has lived in reports and strategies, in speeches and vision documents of people pontificating, but worst of persons who would find every reason why a perfectly good project should not be done.
But the real challenge, Madam Speaker, is that we have lacked the bureaucracy to deliver at pace and at scale these transformational projects. Madam Speaker, the era of unrealized potential ends with this bill. Every school NaRRA build will be designed for the storms of tomorrow, not the storms of yesterday. Every road, bridge, and drainage system will be built to climate resilient standards. Every community relocated from a high-risk zone, will be settled in a planned, serviced, productive location. Black River and Falmouth will not be rebuilt as they were. They will be reimagined as planned climate ready urban cores that become a model for the region. We are building the Jamaica we always knew we could be.
Through the FAST Jamaica, we are connecting that physical reconstruction to the economic transformation that Jamaica’s potential has long demanded. The logistics hub at Kingston that positions us as a premier transshipment centre of the hemisphere, the agricultural resilience of our rural parishes, the tourism infrastructure of our coastal communities rebuilt to a standard that commands premium positioning in the global market, the energy transition that will reduce our vulnerability to fuel price volatility and lower costs for every Jamaican household and business and the STEAM schools that will produce the human capital for the economy of tomorrow. These are not separate projects; these are the interconnected architecture of Jamaican resurgence; the realization at last of which this nation has always been capable of.
Jamaica has proven before that it can use bold consensus-based mechanism to achieve transformation at historic scale. EPOC held successive governments accountable through the most impressive macroeconomic turnaround achieved by any small island state globally. JAMRROC will hold NaRRA accountable through reconstruction and resurgence in the same way that EPOC did.
Madam Speaker, we have earned the confidence of the world’s foremost development institutions. We have assembled the largest financing package in Jamaica’s history. We have designed an institution with clear accountability, credible oversight, and a focused mandate. We have a framework to crowd in the private capital that will close the gap between what the storm took and what Jamaica can build. We have a bill, what we need, Madam Speaker, is a national will; the collective determination of every member of this House, every Jamaican in every parish, and every member of our diaspora around the world to build this country together forward.
Madam Speaker, I commend the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority Bill 2026 to this honourable House. I ask that members engage it with the seriousness it deserves. I ask that we resist the temptation to allow the theoretical or theatrical to overwhelm, which we are want to do the practical to become absorbed as the leader of the opposition tried to do to pull me into institutional debates about design that we forget the people of St Elizabeth, Westmoreland, Hanover, St Ann, St James, and the other parishes who are waiting for their communities to be rebuilt. For once, let us join hands, but let us put the people first, truly.
When we debate sometimes here, we want to put process before people. It is something that I have heard the lament on this side, but I’ve heard a similar lament by members on that side that our mature democracy has produced a system where we look for process over outcome and as you have said, sometimes we believe that perfecting the process is the outcome that we desire regardless of whether or not the people have benefited and I think we now have this opportunity. Yes, we must get the accountability right, the transparency right. Competitiveness is a part of our culture, and we have to find a way to have that in the NaRRA. We must ensure that we are developing local talent and including local capabilities. All of those things, we don’t debate them, but it doesn’t mean that we are going to be bogged down and move slowly because of that.
The new challenge for this generation of legislators is to figure out how to create structures that are nimble, structures that are lean, structures that can respond to the disruptive world in which we exist, structures that reward performance. I hate to use this word because it’s going to be misinterpreted, but we have to have structures that reward the risk taker because that is how you’re going to get innovation and movement at speed and pace. It is the challenge that we face, and I’m certain that the capacity elected in this room and appointed in the Senate is capable of coming up with an institutional structure that balances all of these requirements, but at the same time, making sure that we move faster than we were moving before.
I’ve always said it is a national tragedy that we have the fastest man and the fastest woman in the world, and yet we have the slowest-moving bureaucratic process. Somehow it has invaded our psyche and our culture that if it didn’t take long, it wasn’t well done while the rest of the world is moving way pass us, while we are celebrating how well we have perfected process and we have no celebration for how we have lifted people out of poverty, how we have gotten our roads repaired, how we have brought in new industries; that must be the focus.
Madam Speaker, Jamaica does not need a recovery model in which process supersedes tangible outcomes, in which files move elegantly while reconstruction stalls. The people of Jamaica are not waiting for a perfect institution; they are waiting for a functioning one. They are waiting for school children to have proper learning facilities, hospitals where families can be treated, roads that we can drive on without being shaken up and stirred, and homes in which we can live safely. NaRRA is how we will deliver those things faster, more transparently, and with greater accountability than Jamaica has ever managed before.
Madam Speaker, this House does not have to speculate about what happens when political conflict and institutional paralysis delay post-disaster reconstruction. We have a case study. In March 2026, Minister Morgan led a delegation to Lima, Peru, specifically to learn from Peru’s experience after the El Niño Costero flood of early 2017. Peru passed its reconstruction law in September 2017 and established the Authority for Reconstruction with Changes (ARCC) to lead delivery, but the programme was almost immediately consumed by political crisis.
The reconstruction framework was amended under political pressure, and projects were fragmented back across ministries and regional authorities. By April 2019, 18 months after reconstruction was supposed to have begun in earnest, only 27% of the approved reconstruction budget had been spent. The Comptroller General of Peru subsequently identified nearly 13,000 instances of mismanagement and 105 projects paralysed across 11 regions. Peru eventually stopped re-litigating its governance model and started building differently.
In 2020, it reconstituted the ARCC; that is the entity that they had created as a focus executor, implemented a government-to-government delivery partnership with the United Kingdom, so they eventually abandoned what was set up as the equivalent of what we’re setting up as NaRRA and went to a government-to-government delivery partnership with the United Kingdom and reformed procurement completely. The results were immediate. Procurement timelines fell from 12 months to 3 to 4 months, and the number of competitive bidders per project rose from an average of 2 to 22 per project.
Madam Speaker, the lesson from Peru is that delay costs lives, livelihoods, and national credibility. The Jamaican people cannot afford for us to repeat Peru’s first phase. We can do much better, Madam Speaker. We can be focused and empowered, and we can make our system accountable from the start. Peru took three painful years to arrive at where they are now. We are beginning at where Peru eventually arrived, not where it started and I draw this parallel, Madam Speaker, because what I’m seeing evolving could lead to us getting trapped in the analysis paralysis cycle where we could end up not able to resist political advantage or political opportunity and we end up debating this forever until the emergency of Melissa’s passed in the minds of the people. It has happened before, so I urge this House to think on the objective, which is to have reconstruction happen quickly, but equitably, accountably, and transparently. I believe that the bill we have presented meets the criteria. We are open to considering improvements, and I invite all the members to bring their best minds to analysing the bill.
Madam Speaker, I want to very quickly go clause by clause as I’m required to do to explain or give a general overview of the bill.
1. – Short Title and Commencement Clause: Contains the short title of the Act, as well as its operational provisions. It provides that the Act will come into force on a date appointed by the minister. It also provides that the dissolution and transition provisions will come into operation on a date appointed by the minister.
2. – Interpretation Clause: Provides for the definitions of terms used in the Act, key expressions such as approving entity, designated strategic investment projects, and stepping order are defined. These terms will be more fully explained as we proceed through the bill.
– Deals with administration.
3. – Establishment of the authority: Establishes the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) or the authority as a body corporate.
4. – Establishes NaRRA’s functions under the Act: Its primary functions are the preparation, implementation, and oversight of approved reconstruction and resilience projects, plans, programmes, activities, and works. In addition, NaRRA will, among other things, establish performance indicators and reporting standards, which are critical to the success of this entity as an accountable entity, establish tracking, monitoring and reporting systems, procure goods, works and services, issue directives and operational guidelines, cause projects, programmes, and plans to include standards for climate and disaster resilience, establish project management and risk management systems.
– Sets out the powers of NaRRA: List powers in relation to carrying out the operational works.
– Clarifies that NaRRA enter into transactions and takes actions to preserve sites of architectural and historic interests.
– Acknowledges that NaRRA will utilise the existing resources of the government in carrying out its functions as appropriate.
5. – Appointment of Chief Executive Officer and other employees: Provides for the appointment of the CEO of NaRRA. This appointment is made by the Prime Minister by instrument in writing. The CEO will be responsible for the day-to-day management of NaRRA and act on its behalf. NaRRA will be able to employ such staff as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of the Act.
– Includes provisions regarding the remuneration of staff, which must be in accordance with the rates prescribed by the minister responsible for the public service.
6. – Delegation of functions: Allows NaRRA and the CEO to delegate, with the approval of the minister, the performance of their functions as they consider necessary.
7. – Power to Appoint Committees: The administration of this legislation will require good administration and sound technical advice to ensure disaster recovery and reconstruction is resilient and in accordance with established laws, standards and guidelines. It may therefore be necessary to appoint an appropriately constituted committee to examine and report on matters relating to the Act.
This would be akin to the advisory board. Again, the leader of the opposition missed that clause. Clause 7 of the Act allows the minister to appoint such committees as required for the members to be compensated for their services.
8. – Funds of the Authority: Provides that the funds of the authority will be the funds placed at its disposal by Parliament, as well as other monies or property which may become payable to or vested in NaRRA.
9. – Accounts and Audits: Mandates NaRRA to follow good accounting practices, which must be in accordance with generally accepted principles promulgated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Jamaica. These financial statements must be audited annually by a registered public accountant appointed by the NaRRA CEO with the approval of the Cabinet Secretary. The statement of accounts audited must form part of NaRRA’s annual report under Clause 11.
10. – Reports, Returns, et cetera: Requires NaRRA to furnish reports, returns, accounts, and other information to the minister with respect to its activities.
11. – Annual and Other Reports: Requires NaRRA to prepare annual reports, which must include the audited statements of accounts under clause 9. The annual report and audited financials must be submitted to the minister no later than four months after the end of the financial year. The minister must then have the annual report, annual statement of accounts and auditors’ report tabled in Parliament.
12. – Corporate plan, et cetera: Requires NaRRA to submit a corporate plan, operating plan, and its estimates of revenues and expenditure to the ministry by the 30th of September each year.
13. – Directions to the Authority: Empowers the minister to give directions to NaRRA. Such directions will seek to ensure the effective performance of NaRRA’s function, and that approved reconstruction and resilience projects, as well as designated strategic investment projects, are executed in accordance with Cabinet’s approval and the public interest.
14. – Obligation to Secrecy: Creates an obligation of secrecy and confidentiality for employees of NaRRA and other persons having an official duty under the Act. Disclosure contrary to this obligation is an offence; however, the obligation is subject to the proviso that it does not apply to any disclosure that is required by the Act or any other law.
15. – Indemnification of the Chief Executive Officer: Allows NaRRA to indemnify the CEO or any other employee for losses with respect to civil, criminal, or administrative actions or proceedings by virtue of their employment with NaRRA, provided that said employee acted honestly and in good faith.
16. – Right to Indemnify: Further provides that the CEO or other employee are entitled to indemnification by NaRRA in defending any civil, criminal, or administrative action or proceedings where they were substantially successful on the merits of their defence in the matter.
Madam Speaker, part 3, which deals with reconstruction and resilience projects, programmes, and plans, under part 3:
17. – Approved Projects: Provides for one of the central features of the NaRRA framework, the official Cabinet-approved list of reconstruction and resilience projects and designated strategic investment projects under FAST Jamaica.
– Requires NaRRA to develop programmes and detailed plans to include project scope, delivery arrangements, and timelines for the implementation of approved reconstruction and resilience projects. Implementation is subject to the approval of the Cabinet.
18. – Programmes: Deals first with reconstruction and resilience programmes, which must be developed by NaRRA in consultation with relevant persons and in accordance with best practice and prescribed requirements. The goods, works and services to be procured and the relevant persons involved in the programme must be stated. The programme must be submitted to Cabinet for approval and must be accompanied by the relevant plans for implementation.
19. – Requires NaRRA to prepare the plans for implementation of approved reconstruction and resilience projects and monitor their implementation: The plan must be reviewed and periodically updated as necessary. NaRRA must establish mechanisms for receiving continuous and reliable information regarding the execution of the plans. Programmes and plans prioritise climate and disaster resilience and the need to identify and protect vulnerable areas. They must be informed by historic and current, natural and climatic environmental processes and seek to eliminate, mitigate, or minimise adverse impacts.
20. – The Register: Provides that NaRRA shall cause a register of approved reconstruction and resilience projects to be kept. The register will be updated periodically with the approved projects appearing in the official list issued by the Cabinet. The register will be made available electronically for public inspection.
21. – Expedition of Approval Processes: Provides the mechanism for expediting the approval processes relating to the timely completion of approved reconstruction and resilience projects and designated strategic investment projects. It allows NaRRA to convene meetings of the various approving entities to establish timelines for inspections, evaluations and assessments deadlines for determining applications, and other inputs that inform applications. In many instances, approvals depend on inputs from entities that do not themselves approve the applications. Clause 21 contemplates that all such matters will be brought within the framework to ensure complete efficiency and coordination of these critical projects. Having convened the approving entities, NaRRA will be authorised to issue directives regarding the manner in which applications and other inputs are to be handled.
22. – Directives: Requires an approving entity to manage the application review process in accordance with NaRRA’s directives. Such directives must be issued in writing and may require the approving entity to:
- Process applications concurrently or sequentially
- Coordinate the processing of applications among other approving entities.
- Proceed with consideration of an application where an approving entity may otherwise delay or decline to process an application solely because approval or input from another approving entity is pending.
- Rely on approvals previously granted.
- Determine an application within a specified period and,
- Make exceptions to zoning requirements.
23. – Actions to Address Noncompliance with Directives: Provides the mechanism for NaRRA to address noncompliance with its directives by approving entities. Where there is non-compliance with a directive, NaRRA may apply to the minister for stepping orders or take other steps necessary to secure compliance with the directive. Before applying to the minister, NaRRA must first obtain independent expert advice on the matter and must be satisfied that the requirements for approval have been met or exceeded or that the terms, conditions, or qualifications of the approvals are not necessary. NaRRA must notify the relevant approving entity in writing that it intends to apply for a stepping order, providing reasons, providing the expert advice obtained and stating the steps taken to address the concerns of the authority in relation to the application.
24. – Deals with Stepping Orders: Provides that the minister may issue the stepping order approving the application or modifying the conditions of approval in relation to the matter for which NaRRA has sought a stepping order. The stepping order once issued will have effect as if it were the approval of the approving entity, however, prior to issuing a stepping order, the minister must be satisfied that the approving entity failed to comply with a directive of NaRRA was notified of the non-compliance, that the independent expert advice was sought which supports the application for a stepping order, and that it is appropriate in all the circumstances to make the order. The minister must also give the approving entity the opportunity to make representations prior to issuing the stepping order.
Madam Speaker, I wish members to pay attention to these clauses because they substantially seek to balance the crux of the matter, which is to expedite approvals, expedite permitting, but at the same time, pay attention to the essence of our administrative law, which is to have a process of independent review to allow for appeal and to involve expert advice, and we have tried to capture all of that. I encourage members to look at clauses 22, 23, 24, and, of course, 25, which is the designation of strategic investment projects.
25. – Allows the Cabinet to designate a project to be a strategic investment project, which provides similar benefits as approved reconstruction and resilience projects. The privilege of this designation will depend on the Cabinet being satisfied that the proposed investment value or investment threshold is at least US$15 million or equivalent. The project can be integrated with the approved reconstruction and resilience projects that are already approved, or contribute to the achievement of the purposes of the Act, and the project falls within a list of specified sectors or any other sector that the Cabinet may determine, where strategic opportunities arise that serve the reconstruction and economic resilience objective of the Act. The investment threshold may be amended by order, subject to affirmative resolution.
26. – Deals with Regulations: Provides the usual power of the minister to make regulations to give effect to the provisions of the Act. This is to be done in consultation with NaRRA and subject to affirmative resolution. The House is always involved.
27. – Amendment of Schedules: Provides that the minister may amend the schedule.
Part 4 Clause 28 – Dissolution and Transitional Arrangement:
Madam Speaker, it will be recalled that NaRRA is intended to be a temporary measure, so within the bill, we have put in a process for its dissolution. To give effect to this, part 4 of the Act sets out how NaRRA will ultimately come to an end. As indicated earlier, this Part 4 will come into force on a future date to be appointed by the minister and is therefore worded prospectively. This will allow the affairs of NaRRA to be properly wound up before its sudden dissolution.
29. – Savings of Agreements, Arrangements, et cetera: Provides a transfer of any reference to NaRRA after its dissolution to be construed as a reference to the government. This encompasses any agreement, arrangement, contract, instrument, or other document. The provision includes the necessary safeguards to preserve the interests of third parties and the public.
30. – The Transitional Arrangements for Money: Provides that after dissolution, monies held by or become payable to NaRRA shall be credited or payable to the consolidated fund.
31. – Devolution of Assets and Liabilities: Provides that assets, rights, and liabilities of NaRRA shall become vested in the commission of lands, Accountant General, or the government as appropriate.
32. – Transfer of Official Records: Provides that the records of NaRRA shall be transferred to the responsible ministry.
33. – Transitional Arrangements: Provides that the transfer of real property under clause 32 shall not be treated as a transfer for which transfer tax, property tax, or stamp duty is chargeable.
34. – Duration of the Act: Provides that the actual continuing force until the day after the day of dissolution.
The Schedule Office of the Chief Executive Officer of the National Reconstruction Resilience Authority: Tenure of the CEO in paragraph 1 provides that the tenure of the CEO shall not exceed three years. It also limits eligibility by excluding sitting members of either House of Parliament or Local Government.
Publication of the Name of the CEO in paragraph 2 provides that the name of the CEO and every change in CEO must be published in the Gazette.
Resignation in paragraph 3 provides that the CEO may resign at any time, and that resignation takes effect as from the date set out in the instrument.
Revocation of Appointment of the CEO in paragraph 4 provides that the Prime Minister may revoke the appointment of the CEO for any of the prescribed reasons, including convictions past or present, inability to perform functions due to mental or physical infirmity, bankruptcy or failure to act or to carry out the functions under the Act.
Authentication of Documents in paragraph 5 provides for the authentication of documents.
Records in paragraph 6 provide the keeping of business records for NaRRA by the CEO.
The Office of the CEO is not a Public Office. Paragraph 7 established that the CEO is not a public office for the purpose of Chapter 5 of the Constitution.
Madam Speaker, it is important to reassure the public that while we work assiduously to procure the necessary goods, works and services for NaRRA’s effectiveness, we will treat with procurement in a manner that is expeditious but ensures transparency, accountability, and fiscal prudence.
In addressing the procurement issue, Madam Speaker, to this end, the NaRRA will be designated as an exempt body under Section 3 of the Public Procurement Act 2015, reflecting the extraordinary nature and urgency of the reconstruction mandate. While exemption from the Act provides NaRRA with the necessary operational flexibility to undertake procurement at the pace and scale required, the government recognises that this flexibility must be accompanied by a purpose-built procurement architecture that ensures efficiency, value for money, transparency, and accountability.
The procurement system will be designated to operate at speed without diluting governance, internal controls, or public trust. The authority will ensure that a comprehensive procurement policy and governance framework is designed, establishing principles, objectives, and rules governing all procurement activity, including ethical standards, conflict of interest provisions, oversight, reporting, and accountability.
Madam Speaker, I believe I’ve given a comprehensive overview of the bill itself and the objectives that the government intends to achieve. Madam Speaker, Melissa created a crisis, but every crisis presents an opportunity. It is up to us as the leaders of the nation to recognise the opportunity and to determine in ourselves to seize the opportunity. History and time give every man, every community, every country, every nation, a window of opportunity. Some people look at the window and say, ” What a beautiful vista, what a beautiful view”. Some people actually close the window and some people wait until the sun sets on the beauty provided by the window. There have been times in our history when we have dithered, we have become trapped in extensive political litigation of the actions required, but there have been times in our history when we have come together in a time of crisis, where we have accepted the challenge, embraced the opportunity, and we have acted as one people. And whenever we have done that, the country has benefited.
Madam Speaker, when we acted to treat with political violence and form the electoral commission, we acted as one, and we were able to eliminate political violence from our political culture. We can do it. Madam Speaker, when we faced a national debt of 147% of GDP, we were on the brink of collapse financially as a nation, we came together. I was the leader of the opposition at that time; no bill that came to Parliament was unnecessarily held up for any political gain. I gave instructions to my members: we must be present, we must help to improve the bills, and we must get them passed.
We played our part. The nation benefited. Today, we have cut the debt in half, and we are still, even with a disaster, on course to keep our target of debt reduction. The country has benefited from EPOC; all the stakeholders coming together to hold the government to account for policy. It’s the same framework that we intend to mobilise for the reconstruction after Hurricane Melissa.
I urge members to resist the temptation. Yes, criticise constructively, but resist the temptation to stall, to delay, to usurp. I believe if we look at the interest of the nation, we can rebuild Jamaica in the image that we all have in our minds; Jamaica, the prosperous, developing, the place of choice to live, work, raise families, do business, and retire in paradise.
God bless, Jamaica.