NaRRA legislation flawed, says Golding

 

 

Opposition Leader Mark Golding is asserting that the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Act is flawed and that the authority should never have become law.

 

Mr. Golding has gone further to describe the structure of NaRRA, from a governance point of view, as an aberration or departure from the norm.

 

His criticism of the legislation follows the decision of the government to scale down the office space that will house the NaRRA in order to cut rental costs after public backlash.

 

The government initially said NaRRA had entered a five-year lease agreement for its new headquarters for US$726,000 or J$115 million per annum.  

 

Mr. Golding argues that had NaRRA been established as a statutory body with a statutory board, that board would have had to sign off on the commercial terms of the lease agreement "and would have had to receive legal advice as well as the terms and conditions of the lease". 

 

"So it would have ensured that another set of eyes looking at it from a governance standpoint and mindful of the statutory provision in Section 4 (4), which requires NaRRA to use public assets in the course of its business wherever possible, that that had been complied with, and what efforts had the management team undertaken to see what was available to the public sector," he contended.

 

Mr. Golding also questioned the powers of the Jamaica Reconstruction and Resilience Oversight Committee (JAMRROC), which is expected to give oversight of NaRRA.

 

"With the JAMRROC having no legal status and there being restrictions on the flow of information from NaRRA to any outside entity unless there's a specific legal authority for the sharing of information, which does not exist in the case of JAMRROC, it's not clear to me how JAMRROC could provide any oversight in relation to a matter like this. So it just underscores the correctness of the position that we were taking stridently all along, that the legislation is flawed," insisted the Opposition Leader.