Beverly Hills brouhaha

Jamaica's single anti-corruption body has found that a Beverly Hills town house constructed by Estatebridge, a company linked to Prime Minister Andrew Holness and his business partner Norman Brown, has breached the building permit issued by the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC).

The Integrity Commission (IC) says the development has four 4-bedroom town houses instead of four 2-bedroom town houses, as approved by the KSAMC.

The property is located at 2 Weycliffe Close, Beverly Hills, Kingston 6.

Brown is the chairman of one of Jamaica's largest public bodies, the Urban Development Corporation, as well as the Housing Corporation of Jamaica which both fall under the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation that is headed by the prime minister.

An IC report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday concluded that the breaches were deliberate and that the directors of Estatebridge are liable.

The directors of the company are Brown, Sydjea Anderson and Adam Holness, the son of the prime minister.

Prime Minister Holness is the sole director and shareholder of Imperium Investments Holding Limited, a company which had shares in Estatebridge at the time the permit was granted in July 2021. Brown, Anderson and Holness' son are the listed shareholders. Kevon Stephenson, the IC's director of investigations, said the breaches of the building permit were deliberate.

In a statement last night, Estatebridge rejected the IC report that it breached the building law in the construction of the apartment complex.

The company's directors said at no time did the KSAMC observe a breach in the room count during its inspections.

They added that variations in size of areas, and reconfiguration of layout, which normally occur during construction and do not materially change the building footprint, were noted in the most recent inspection and the necessary application is in process.

“The principals are law-abiding citizens who give yeoman service to Jamaica and will not be deterred by baseless allegations and bureaucratic overreach of an organisation that is not the competent authority,” the directors said.

At the same time, the prime minister, in a separate statement, said he was concerned that he was being “targeted”.

“I am not a director of the company which is the subject of the report, and I am not a shareholder in the company, nor do I own the property in question. Therefore, it is a puzzle to me why I am a subject of this report,” Prime Minister Holness said.

“It seems more than coincidence, that this report was submitted to Parliament a few days before the delivery of judgment of the Supreme Court in a matter in which I am seeking judicial review of another report of the commission. The fact that a statutory entity would exercise its powers in such a manner is troubling.

“This transparent attempt to attack my reputation will not deter me from serving Jamaica. While the commission has made no conclusions or findings about me. I have asked my lawyers to review the report and advise further.”

Late last night the KSAMC said it was reviewing the findings of the report and was not yet in a position to provide a detailed response.

“However, a meeting will be convened shortly with the relevant officers and stakeholders to thoroughly examine the findings and recommendations,” the KSAMC statement read. .

The director of investigation came to his conclusion on the basis that at least one director, Brown, had knowledge prior to December 4, 2023, when he gave a statement to the commission, that the development consisted of four 4-bedroom town houses.

According to Stephenson, Brown himself stated that he has a supervisory function in relation to the development and Anderson indicated that Brown is the director who is generally responsible for Estatebridge's business operations.

The commission said Brown, in a witness statement he signed, declared as “truth” that on December 4, 2023, the development consisted of four 4-bedroom town houses.

“This statement was made at a time when the director of investigations was not investigating any breaches of the building permit issued to Estatebridge by the KSAMC, and under circumstances where Mr Brown was not a suspect,” Stephenson said.

However, the IC's director of investigation reported that Brown later “made contrary representations in a Judges' Rules interview convened on October 31, 2024, after he had been informed that the director of investigation was investigating alleged breaches of the Building Act and the referenced permit and that he was a suspect”.

In a separate matter, Brown has asked the court to order the IC to remove findings that his chairmanship of two state entities that report to Holness poses a “significant” potential conflict of interest.

Brown's application for permission to apply for a judicial review of the report on Holness' finances follows a similar bid by the prime minister.

The IC reported that Kennado Nesbeth, the project manager, in a “verbal statement on July 12, 2024 to investigators from the anti-corruption body, indicated that there were departures from the building permit issued by the KSAMC and that efforts were being made to remedy the breaches.

However, Stephenson said that Nesbeth later denied making the statement.

The director of investigation found that Nesbeth, either conspired with, or aided and abetted, the directors of Estatebridge, in the commission of the breach.

Stephenson said his conclusion is premised on the fact that by virtue of Nesbeth's role as contractor, it is reasonable to infer that he must have been cognisant of the terms and conditions of the permit granted by the KSAMC. Furthermore, the IC's director of investigation said Nesbeth's company is party to a construction contract with Estatebridge which requires him, as contractor, to construct the development in accordance with the building permit.

According to Stephenson, in Nesbeth's statement dated October 16, 2024, the contractor indicated that, “I designed the building plan for the development for submission to the KSAMC. Each unit would consist of four habitable rooms, a pool on the split level, four bathrooms, a laundry and storage area”.

Stephenson said the chief engineering officer at the KSAMC, Xavier Chevannes, in a statement to the IC dated July 17, 2024, indicated that “no application for amendment was made for this application located at 2 Wycliffe [Sic] Close, Beverly Hills, Kingston 6”.

Chevannes further stated: “Several site visits were conducted at the construction of the development located at 2 Wycliffe[Sic] Close, Beverly Hills, Kingston 6. Three site visits were conducted on the request of the applicant and three reports prepared accordingly. The site visits conducted would have indicated that no breach was detected on any of the visits at the development... .”

In an October 2023 IC report in which National Water Commission President Mark Barnett was accused of building an apartment complex, allegedly in violation of building permits, the anti-corruption body made recommendations to the prime minister and the minister of local government and community development.

Stephenson recommended then the introduction of legislation which imposes pecuniary penalties on developers who wilfully violate building and development permits for financial gain. The IC also recommended that profits attributable to breaches should be forfeited. Additionally, the IC suggested that developers should also face debarment in respect of planning and development approval for an appropriate time period post breach.

Sections 33 and 51 of the Integrity Commission Act empower the director of investigation to investigate irregularities around prescribed licences. The law says a prescribed licence is any licence or permit granted by a public body.

INBOX

IC interviewed Norman Brown on Dec. 4, 2023 in relation to PM's statutory declarations.

When asked about the development in question, Brown indicated the following:

“The project consists of four (4), four-bedroom town houses and it is located at Weycleff [Sic] Close, Beverly Hills, Kingston 6, St Andrew. I am unsure of the exact date it started, it may have been sometime in 2020. However, the project is 75% complete. Based on my investment

I have assumed a supervisory role. However, the project is managed by Mr Kennedo Nesbeth of KNN Design and Construction Limited.

This is the arrangement that existed prior to my involvement in the project. At the end of the project, the shareholders would each get a town house if the numbers can account for that and the fourth one would be sold to recoup the cost of construction and operational cost associated with the project.”

On October 31, 2024, Mr Norman Brown was interviewed pursuant to Rule 2 of the Judges' Rules Administrative Directives. When asked, “... What is the composition and layout of the proposal submitted to the KSAMC in respect of the development located at 2 Weycliffe Close, Beverly Hills, Kingston 6?” he indicated the following “... I was not involved then in terms of the application. I became aware of the scope of the thing when I became an investor in the project, as far as I know the scope of the [projects] is four town houses consisting of four habitable rooms which would include two (2) bedrooms in each [units]”.