The People’s National Party (PNP) is demanding that the Government table the full lease under which the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) will pay $115 million a year for headquarters at the Digicel offices on Ocean Boulevard in Kingston.

In a press release on Tuesday, the PNP stressed that the agreement comes while “Hurricane Melissa victims still wait for help to rebuild.”

NaRRA disclosed on Monday that it signed a five-year lease at US$26 per square foot, or US$725,972 annually, ahead of starting operations on November 1, citing the building’s resilience features and a National Land Agency valuation. NaRRA has also said its premises must allow it to work through hurricanes.

The PNP is questioning whether the authority is absorbing the functions of ODPEM, the agency it noted Jamaicans already fund to lead disaster response as well as preparedness and emergency management.

The PNP also noted that, as far as taxpayers know, they are still paying $4.5 million a month for the former home of the Ministry of Legal and Constitutional Affairs on Fairway Avenue.

“Jamaicans are not asking whether the rent matches the market. They are asking why it is being paid at all,” said Julian Robinson, Opposition Spokesperson on Finance. “Why was NaRRA not placed at Fairway Avenue, a building the public is already paying for? Why not the Office of the Prime Minister, ODPEM or other rent free state properties? Who made this decision, and which alternatives were rejected?”

The PNP said one year of the rent could repair breakaways that cut off communities, schools and homes, restore damaged classrooms, or ease hospital shortages.

“An authority created to cut through bureaucracy has begun by building overhead,” Robinson said. “Families in western Jamaica are still under tarpaulin. A reconstruction agency’s first priority should be roofs on homes, not a waterfront address.”

He added: “Much like the nearly $750 million spent on an empty Tax Administration Jamaica office in Mandeville, leased in September 2020 and remains unopened today, this is yet another egregious example of this Government’s wasteful use of public resources.”

The PNP said it is calling on the Government to publish the lease, the NLA valuation report, the procurement record, the list of state properties considered, the status of the Fairway Avenue lease, the cost of furnishing the new office, and the staff posts approved by the Establishment Division of the Ministry of Finance, with the salaries attached.

“Transparency is not optional when it is the people’s money,” Robinson said. “Every dollar spent on comfort is a dollar withheld from recovery.”