Other side of the fence

A week after Education Minister Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon publicly blamed bureaucracy for an 18-month delay in approving a fence for Naggo Head Primary, Opposition senators fired back on Friday, accusing her of leaving out key details, including a dispute over the ownership of the land earmarked for the project.

However, the minister maintained that she had documented evidence showing repeated unanswered appeals to the municipality and insisted she had “never spoken out of turn” on the matter.

The clash unfolded in the Senate during debate on the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill, where the Naggo Head Primary issue resurfaced as senators sparred over whether the proposed legislation would hand sweeping powers to the Government under the guise of cutting bureaucracy.

Opposition Senator Donna Scott-Mottley said she was initially alarmed when Morris Dixon publicly disclosed that approval for a fence needed to secure the school had been delayed for more than a year by the municipality.

“You know minister, I was very embarrassed by what you said about the municipality and the long wait you had. When you hear somebody, a minister, say that a fence which is needed for the security and safety of the children has been delayed by a municipality for over 18 months, you must be concerned,” Scott-Mottley said during Friday’s sitting

But Scott-Mottley argued that the public was not told the full story. She said subsequent enquiries revealed that the land involved was the subject of an ownership dispute, which prevented the municipality from granting approval.

According to Scott-Mottley, the issue raised concerns about how NaRRA’s broad powers could potentially be used to override normal governance processes.

“But when you’re closing, tell me, explain to me how NaRRA would have been used to resolve that situation. Is it that you would have acquired that land? Because I am reading into NaRRA that NaRRA can do basically anything in the world that it desires to do — and I think that for good governance you should just pause and consider whether that is in fact what you intend, or it’s an unintended consequence of the way that you have framed and approached the legislation,” she added.

Opposition Senator Lambert Brown also challenged the minister’s earlier portrayal of the matter, revealing that he had contacted the Portmore Municipal Corporation after hearing Morris Dixon’s remarks.

Brown said the mayor informed him that the land did not belong to either the school or the Ministry of Education, and that competing claims had emerged from a church and a citizens’ association.

He said the municipality had recommended that the National Land Agency assist in resolving the matter, and noted that municipal records showed the issue had been under active discussion for months before being resolved.

“I believe you owe the municipality an apology,” Brown told the minister while defending the municipality’s broader record in facilitating development approvals in the rapidly expanding municipality of Portmore.

In closing the debate Morris Dixon rejected suggestions that she had misrepresented the issue and said she had instructed her permanent secretary to provide all correspondence related to the matter.

“I know nobody spoke about the letter that I wrote to the municipality begging them to do the approval, and that they have never responded to me,” she said.

The minister acknowledged that there had been a land title issue involving property owned by the National Land Agency and a church located on the property, but said the matter had been agreed upon “a year ago”. She also hinted at additional documentation that had not yet been disclosed publicly.

“I don’t speak out of turn ever, so I want you to look — and there’s another piece of documentation that I have here that I’ve not gone into — and I think when you both look at it you’re going to see you’re gonna be very amazed that no one has said that part to you, but I don’t get political here,” Morris Dixon insisted.

A screengrab of Opposition Senator Lambert Brown contributing to the debate on the NaRRA Bill which was approved by the Senate on Friday.