LEARY Myers, chief executive officer (CEO) of the National Environ-ment and Planning Agency (NEPA), says inadequate staffing is responsible for the present delay in the processing of building development applications, which now take up to a year to be approved.

Myers’ explanation came after charges from Reynald Scott, president of the Developers Association of Jamaica, that a 2003 promise by NEPA for a 90-day turnaround for building approvals was not forthcoming.

Scott told building professionals at a recent luncheon hosted by the Incorporated Masterbuilders of Jamaica (IMAJ) at their Oxford Park Avenue office that Franklyn McDonald, a former head of NEPA, had given the assurance then that the process would be quicker, assuming that all statutory requirements were met by the applicants.

“Anyone who can say they legitimately get approval within 12 months, raise your hand,” Scott asked the audience.

But the only response he got from the audience was laughter.

He then called on NEPA to speed up the application process, saying that having to wait as long as a year for approval was counter- productive and extremely costly to the construction sector.

But Myers told the gathering that “there is no way the approval process can be done in 90 days”.

He noted that 15 agencies, along with NEPA, had to vet each application, resulting in inadvertent delays.

“The 90-day timeline is not sufficient; we have to consult with 15 agencies,” he emphasised.

Myers said that in one instance an arrangement was even worked out with a parish council to assist in overtime payment for NEPA staff.

Myers added that while NEPA was blamed for the long delays, his agency could only process an application as fast as a response was received from the other agencies. He added that the turnaround time of some of these agencies was also affected by a lack of adequate staffing.

Admitting that the application processing time was too lengthy, Myers told the gathering that NEPA would be implementing an online system that would allow the tracking of applications all the way through to completion.

“You will be able to stay in your offices and see where your application has reached,” said Myers.

fosterp@jamaicaobserver.com