Many of my generation will recall the former Lands Department, Land Valuation Department, Titles Office, and Survey Department, all agencies of the Government of Jamaica (GOJ). Given their commonalties, in terms of association with land, these agencies were prime candidates for the Public Sector Modernissation Project for Jamaica.

The objective of the project was to support the Governments’ efforts to: a) improve selected public agencies’ service quality; b) improve the selected ministries’ ability to formulate sector policies, technical standards, and operational norms; effectively monitor and evaluate downstream agencies; and efficiently perform corporate management functions; c) continue public sector rationalisation; d) improve efficiency, value for money, and transparency in government procurement and contracting; e) enhance public financial and personnel management; and f) prepare the next stage of the modernisation process.

The project design consisted of five components: a) modernisation of public sector entities; b) privatisation; c) government procurement, contracting, internal control, and auditing; d) management of information systems component; and e) project implementation, communication campaign, and development of stage II.

One of the outcomes of the project is the National Land Agency (NLA), an executive agency that falls under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation. The April 2001 establishment of the NLA brought together the core land information functions of the four aforementioned GOJ agencies under one roof, namely estate (Crown land) management, land valuation, land titles, and the surveys and mapping divisions, respectively.

This merger enabled the Government to build on the synergy of these combined functions and create a modern national land (spatial) information organisation, which has now grown phenomenally to 11 divisions. The others being business services, corporate legal, corporate services, information and communications technology, human resources, land administration and management, and adjudication services to support its mission of ensuring that Jamaica has an efficient and transparent land titling system that guarantees security of tenure; a national land valuation database that supports equitable property taxation; optimal use of government-owned lands; and a basic infrastructure on which to build a modern spatial information system designed to support sustainable development under its motto “One Agency, One Goal”.

Over its 21 years of existence, the NLA has ticked off several notable milestones. Among these are the 2003 launch of eLandjamaica, which allows customers to access land information online; 2004 implementation of a land registration system/parcel data management system to reduce turnaround times in the processing of land title applications; 2005 establishment of a Probate Unit; 2006 establishment of a one-stop shop in Montego Bay; 2016 control points database map of Jamaica; and 2018 commencement work on its electronic titling (e-titling) project, which will see the discontinuation of the use of paper certificates of title.

In recent years there have been three major projects undertaken by the agency, namely systematic land registration (SLR), digital submission of survey plans and cadastral maps (DSoP), and the national digital cadastral map (NDCM).

SYSTEMATIC LAND REGISTRATION

In response to the GOJ’s plans to accelerate land titling and based on experiences of past GOJ land titling initiatives, the legal team of the NLA set about the task of preparing revisions to the Registration of Titles, Cadastral Mapping and Tenure Clarification (Special Provisions) Act 2005 and the Registration of Titles Act. Both were passed in June 2020, paving the way to a new approach to land titling in Jamaica. Systematic land registration is the methodical and orderly registration of parcels of land in a designated area known as the systematic adjudication areas. These are areas selected across Jamaica, primarily on the basis of a low rate of title registration, and declared through publication in national newspapers.

In his contribution to the Budget Debate in March 2018, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said, “The Government is moving to register and provide titles for 20,000 parcels of land in the next three years and this initiative would be partly funded by the National Housing Trust (NHT) in the sum of $2 billion.”

The directors of the NLA then coalesced around this vision and proceeded to craft, design, and implement workflows which represented the field and office procedures required to have certificates of titles delivered to legitimate claimants of lands. Consequently, as at the end of June 2022, some 5,500 certificates of titles were issued.

This is a major achievement for which the agency must be justly proud, not only because under normal circumstances around 7,500 certificates of titles are issued per year, in addition to the myriad other outputs, including lost title applications, and that these 5,500 new titles represents an addition to the 7,500, but also because this achievement was realised without the usual external (local/overseas) consultants’ intervention. The revisions to the legal provisions and the implementation and execution of the project was and continues to be a total internal effort, whereby all divisions support each other in an integrated approach, helping Jamaicans to unlock the potential in their real estate assets by collateralising to finance agricultural/other projects and/or the education of their children, thereby driving economic growth.

DIGITAL SUBMISSION OF SURVEY PLANS AND CADASTRAL MAPS

In an effort to modernise, accelerate, and improve on the accuracy of the examination and certification of survey plans and cadastral maps for titling, the agency, again, without external consulting support, embarked on the planning, design, and implementation of a Digital Submission of Survey Plans and Cadastral Maps System, which is quite likely the first in the Caribbean.

The system may be viewed as a precursor to the pending e-titling system by which all land titles and transactions will be executed digitally. Survey plans and cadastral maps which are examined and certified digitally will form the graphic support for digital registered titles. In excess of 3,300 survey plan and cadastral map parcels have been submitted via this internally developed system, with almost 20 surveyors signed on to the platform. With this digital support for the traditional land registration and the SLR, the DSoP system can aptly claim its contribution to economic growth.

NATIONAL DIGITAL CADASTRAL MAP

The agency’s eLandjamaica land information system map provides a graphic representation of all parcels — 864,411 as at June 30 — of land in Jamaica. This was initially developed from information collected by the then Land Valuation Department (1970s), to the credit of the valuers at the time, including the late Easton Douglas, who did an excellent job of mapping all parcels of land across the island.

They had no formal land surveying or mapping training but pooled their collective efforts to create what we called enclosure maps, which represented groups of parcels. The shapes and locations of the parcels were not the most accurate, which gave rise to the name Cadastral Index Map, which suggest that it is an index which contains all the parcels, but not necessarily spatially correct. Converted to digital between the late 1990s and early 2000s, the maps are being progressively updated with information extracted from certified survey plans and cadastral maps.

In keeping with world standards, around the year 2001, the agency set about the task of building a National Digital Cadastral Map (NDCM), one which would accurately represent the shape and position of all parcels of land in the island. As at July 1, 2019, 114,506 parcels were very accurately compiled, coordinated, and ready to be prepared for display in our NDCM web portal. In recognition of the slow pace of this survey, accurate approach, and the need for an early completion, the agency pivoted to a more fit-for-purpose approach, and in less than three years some 278,615 parcels were compiled and coordinated and ready to be prepared for display in our NDCM web portal.

An NDCM is the most important infrastructure for the efficient and effective planning and delivery of government services, including but not limited to health/disease control, fire, waste management, crime management, land divestment, land titling, housing, education, as well as land policy development. Any service which is location-dependent relies heavily on a cadastral map for successful execution or implementation. The urgency of its completion, therefore, cannot be overemphasised.

The agency, therefore, needs to be adequately resourced in order to effect a digital cadastral mapping blitz which would see to the fast-tracking of the completion of the map, which so many ministries, departments, and agencies of Government depend on, not the least of which includes the Ministry of National Security (crime management), the National Environment and Planning Agency (development approvals/zoning/land use), the National Works Agency (land acquisition for road projects), National Solid Waste Management Authority (waste management), municipal corporations (development approvals).

If, as a country, we are really serious about economic growth and the realisation of our goals for Vision 2030, the NDCM must be given the support which is needed for its completion.

Glendon G Newsome is a former senior director, surveys and mapping, National Land Agency, and is an associate professor at the University of Technology, Jamaica.