Come April 1, 2008, the National Environment and Planning Agency, NEPA, will no longer be classified under the Ministry of Health and Environment but under the Office of the Prime Minister. That’s the stated intent of the Government of Jamaica as outlined in the Estimates of Expenditure for the year ending 31st March 2009 and tabled in the House of Representatives by Finance Minister Audley Shaw on Thursday, March 27, 2008. Indeed, the document explicitly states that functions under (Expenditure) Head 4200 related to the Environment, have been transferred to the Office of the Prime Minister effective April 1, 2008. Further within the document there is a repeated reference to the Ministry of Health as “formerly Ministry of Health and Environment”. However Minister of Health, Rudyard Spencer is seemingly unaware of any such development, stating on the TVJ 7 pm newscast on Friday that "I don't know that to be the case, it might have been a typo, Environment is still there (under the Health portfolio), yes".
The 2008/2009 estimates also reveal that the allocations for the Office of the Prime Minister’s (OPM's) budget has been fashioned to include projects being implemented by (NEPA). Similarly the Land Portfolio has apparently been stripped from the Ministry of Agriculture and transferred to OPM. This would affect most notably the reporting relationship of the National Land Agency (NLA).
This is however consistent with the utterances of Prime Minister Golding as he continues to seek to create a more investor friendly climate and really dovetails into the Planning and Development portfolio which he had also assumed from the inception of his regime. Further, it is not expected that this is the end of the reformation process for NEPA, as the Prime Minister earlier this year had stated that it was his intent to establish a separate Environmental agency. NEPA as currently constituted, is basically an amalgamation of the Natural Resources and Conservation Authority (NRCA) and the Town and Country Planning Department, both of which are already governed by separate acts of Parliament, making any plans to revert to its initial state relatively easy.
This is however consistent with the utterances of Prime Minister Golding as he continues to seek to create a more investor friendly climate and really dovetails into the Planning and Development portfolio which he had also assumed from the inception of his regime. Further, it is not expected that this is the end of the reformation process for NEPA, as the Prime Minister earlier this year had stated that it was his intent to establish a separate Environmental agency. NEPA as currently constituted, is basically an amalgamation of the Natural Resources and Conservation Authority (NRCA) and the Town and Country Planning Department, both of which are already governed by separate acts of Parliament, making any plans to revert to its initial state relatively easy.
Nevertheless, there are concerns that Prime Minister Golding may be taking on too many line areas of responsibility and therefore hindering his ability to focus on overall policy issues. Already the Prime Minister has assumed responsibility for Defence, Planning and Development, Local Government and now Lands and the Environment. Interestingly, under the previous regime, that portfolio mix was handled by up to five (5) separate Cabinet rank Ministers including the Prime Minister. For his part PM Golding has three Ministers of State (Shahine Robinson, Robert Montague and Daryl Vaz) and one Cabinet rank Minister without Portfolio assigned to OPM (James Robertson).
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