KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Mayor of Kingston, Senator Dr Angela Brown Burke, is urging members of the public not to pay additional fees to employees of the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation (KSAC) to expedite businesses being undertaken with the entity.

“The KSAC does not support any member who attempts or succeed from eliciting money in return for doing the job for which they are being paid,” she emphasised.

Brown Burke added that such practices are corrupt, and they will be turned over to the police for action. Her comment is in response to the arrest of one of the technical officers attached to the KSAC by the Major Organised Crime and Anti-Corruption Agency (MOCA) for soliciting $500,000 from a developer and accepting money from him to expedite the renewal of an expired building permit.

Addressing the monthly meeting of the KSAC on Tuesday at the council’s chambers in downtown Kingston, the mayor said that fees charged by the corporation are to be paid at its offices and no member of staff is empowered to collect building fees, entertainment fees or any other fee outside of the corporate offices of the KSAC for which an official receipt will be given.

She reminded Jamaicans that the KSAC will continue to work in earnest to ensure that developmental and building applications being processed are undertaken within the specified period of 90 days.

“Our thrust, during the past three years, has been aimed at ensuring transparency and establishing an efficient and effective system. So far, we have been able to achieve 80 per cent of all developmental and building applications being processed within the (timeframe),” the mayor noted.

Brown Burke pointed out that through the Application Management and Data Automation (AMANDA) System, applicants are able to track the progress of their submissions, “again improving the level of transparency”.

The AMANDA software allows for transparency through the facilitation of a paper trail, reduce inconsistencies and bring to a halt the bottleneck in task assignment and processes within the development sector.

The mayor said that the current improvements are not by accident, and are being undertaken to ensure transparency and accountability at the KSAC.