JAMAICA : Despite Opposition Concerns, the NaRRA Bill was Passed Anyway, Late Tuesday Night Along Party Lines
JAMAICA : Despite Opposition Concerns, the NaRRA Bill was Passed Anyway, Late Tuesday Night Along Party Lines
Six months after Hurricane Melissa, 2,561 eastern Westmoreland residents are still in the dark. The NaRRA Bill — containing no housing section, no procurement rules, and no independent oversight enshrined in law — passed early Wednesday morning along party lines.
The government came to Parliament with a bill it called the cornerstone of Jamaica’s hurricane recovery. The opposition came with numbers — and those numbers told a different story entirely. Early Wednesday morning, the government passed the bill anyway.
Opening the People’s National Party’s contribution to the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) Bill debate, Dr. Dayton Campbell, Member of Parliament for Eastern Westmoreland, delivered a forensic dismantling of legislation he said concentrates unchecked executive power while leaving the most devastated Jamaicans with nothing but promises.
He was joined by Dr. Alfred Dawes, MP for Saint Catherine South Eastern, who exposed the structural void at the very top of the proposed authority — a single appointed executive answerable, in any meaningful sense, to no one.
The MP’s constituency was among the hardest hit when Hurricane Melissa made landfall. Half a year on, the ground-level reality is damning: as of mid-April, 2,561 residents in eastern Westmoreland remain without electricity. That figure — six months into a recovery billed as a national priority — was not delivered with drama. It landed like a verdict.
“We support reconstruction, urgency, and resilience. But we do not support unchecked power. We do not support rebuilding on a weak governance foundation.”
— DR. DAYTON CAMPBELL, MP, EASTERN WESTMORELAND
A Bill That Forgot the People
The statistics Dr. Campbell placed before Parliament are staggering: 156,000 homes damaged island-wide; 24,000 totally destroyed. Against that scale of devastation, the government’s response in the NaRRA Bill is, by his account, a glaring omission — the legislation contains no dedicated section for housing reconstruction. None.
What exists is a roofs programme that allocates $500,000 for severe damage. Dr. Campbell was blunt: that sum cannot rebuild a resilient house in 2026 Jamaica. It might patch a roof. It will not replace one. The cruelty of the arithmetic is compounded by a policy that cuts off survivors entirely — a tourism worker who received $100,000 in initial aid is now ineligible for any further assistance, locked out of a relief system that apparently considers the matter closed.
Promises Without Law
The governance gaps are equally troubling. The Prime Minister has spoken publicly about JAMRROC — an independent oversight body intended to provide accountability over the reconstruction process. It does not appear in the bill. It is not established in law. It exists, for now, as a political statement rather than a legal safeguard.
Procurement rules — the bedrock of any credible public spending exercise — are absent from the legislation entirely. They will instead be created later by ministerial order, a mechanism that places enormous discretionary power in the hands of the executive with minimal parliamentary scrutiny. The bill also permits the new Authority to override existing zoning and planning laws, and Section 14 imposes criminal penalties for disclosure — an unusual provision in recovery legislation that raises serious questions about what the government intends to keep hidden.
No contracts. No procurement awards. No mandatory public publication. In a recovery programme that will involve billions in public funds, that is not a gap — it is a design choice.
One Man, No Board
MP for Saint Catherine South Eastern Dr Alfred Dawes who exposed the structural void at the very top of the proposed authority — a single appointed executive answerable to no one.
The accountability timeline compounds the problem. The first independent review by the Auditor General would not be required until up to four years after operations commence — meaning billions could be spent, contracts awarded, and zoning laws overridden before a single independent audit is conducted. And Section 13, like Section 14 cited by Dr. Campbell, criminalises unauthorised disclosure without providing any express whistleblower protection. The message to public servants is unambiguous: stay quiet.
“The Bahamas had stronger oversight and still fell apart. Jamaica is proposing weaker oversight and expects to stand together. The logic does not hold.”
— DR. ALFRED DAWES, MP, SAINT CATHERINE SOUTH EASTERN
Build Better or Build Faster?
Dr. Campbell was careful to distinguish his opposition from obstructionism. The PNP, he said, supports reconstruction, urgency, and resilience. What the party cannot support is legislation that substitutes speed for accountability and executive convenience for institutional safeguards. His demand is precise: put JAMRROC in the law. Write procurement rules into the bill. Make parliamentary reporting mandatory — not discretionary.
The challenge to the government is not to go slower. It is to go right. As Dr. Campbell put it, Jamaica must not just build faster — it must build fairer, and with safeguards worthy of the Jamaican people.
Six months after Hurricane Melissa, with thousands still without power and tens of thousands still without intact homes, that is not a radical demand. It is the minimum standard a functioning democracy owes its people. Parliament, voting along party lines in the early hours of Wednesday morning — with seventeen abstentions piercing the silence — decided those demands could wait.
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