Peter Bunting says bureaucracy is holding back Jamaican investment and productivity

Opposition MP Peter Bunting has told Parliament that Jamaica’s public-sector red tape is creating a daily cost for businesses and weakening the country’s ability to attract investment, form new enterprises and lift productivity.

Addressing the House, Bunting argued that bureaucracy operates like a hidden charge on entrepreneurs, showing up through slow approvals, repeated documentation, uncertainty and missed commercial chances. He said economists would describe those obstacles as transaction costs, and contended that countries with strong growth keep such burdens low through efficient and trusted institutions.

Bunting said productivity should not be treated only as an economic matter, because governance also shapes how well an economy performs. Investors, he said, look beyond taxes and wages when deciding where to put capital. They also consider whether contracts can be enforced, rules are stable and public bodies act fairly.

He pointed to several recent controversies which, in his view, should trouble anyone concerned about Jamaica’s competitiveness. Among them was the NAR Act, which he said many Jamaicans regard as a power grab that gives the prime minister and the agency broad executive authority without enough institutional safeguards and with scope to sidestep traditional regulatory oversight.

Bunting also cited the prime minister’s earlier decision to overrule NEPA and approve mining in the ecologically sensitive Dry Harbour Mountains. He noted that the Constitutional Court later found the permit and the prime minister’s decision to be “unconstitutional, void, and of no effect”.

He further referred to the prime minister’s court action against the Integrity Commission, saying more than 20 applications were filed to cancel the commission’s investigative report and challenge key parts of the Integrity Commission Act passed under the Government.

Bunting said parliamentary scrutiny of the executive is also being weakened. He pointed to a three-month delay in tabling a recent Integrity Commission report on the FLA and criticised ministers serving on oversight committees such as the PAC while reviewing Auditor General reports covering periods when they held responsibility.