–Minister Croal says process should be done within a month

THE Planning and Development Single Window System Bill is set to mark the beginning of the end of an era of moving between several ministries and agencies to access government services and to further bring ease to doing business.

The Bill was read on Monday for a second time in the National Assembly and then sent to a Special Select Committee for further examination.

During the debate on Monday, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues told the House that this Bill centralises functions pertaining to land use planning and development by conferring that responsibility on the Central Housing and Planning Authority to be the single point of submission and receipt.

This allows them to effectively manage and implement the system, and facilitate the transmission of planning development applications to other agencies for processing and review where applicable.

Rodrigues added that while the Central Housing and Planning Authority is responsible for the receipt and onward transmission, it does not have oversight of itself. As such, a planning and oversight committee will be established to monitor the agencies’ progress.

She said: “This Bill ensures strict adherence to the principles of transparency, accountability, certainty and predictability to the approval process. Notably, it reduces the powers and influence of political figures in the approval process.”

Additionally, Minister Rodrigues related that the single window approval system is another initiative to cut red tape and eliminate barriers to doing business while contributing to an enhanced business climate.

“This system will allow developers and builders to know exactly how long they have to wait for a decision and can factor these considerations as they make plans to finance and execute their development project,” she said.

NO APOLOGIES
The Bill also seeks to establish a Planning Appeals Tribunal for the purpose of hearing appeals against decisions of the central authority. With this, aggrieved applicants can, within 28 days of receipt of the decision, make an appeal.

Further, it was stated in the proposed Bill that decisions of this Planning Appeals Tribunal shall be final unless the minister declares the matter to be one of national interest.
Members of the Opposition in the National Assembly rose to oppose this section of the Bill as they made contributions to the debate.

In response to the Opposition, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, S.C., during his presentation, debunked the concept that ministers must not be empowered by the legislation to perform statutory functions.

“There is this notion on the other side that if ministers are resided with some power that’s political patronage and that would lead to some abuse of power. Let me reject that for the record,” he said.

Nandlall went on to add that the government was elected by the people of the country to exercise governmental power and as such ministers appointed will exercise those powers.
The Attorney General noted that ministers and the government at large are answerable to the people of the country and as a collective to the National Assembly.

Against this backdrop, he brought up Article 106 of the Constitution which he noted indicates that the Cabinet is collectively responsible to the National Assembly.

“So, you want to hold Collin Croal, the honourable member responsible to the National Assembly but you don’t want to give him the power to perform the functions under this act,” he argued.
Nandlall added that the minister who is charged with the responsibility should be allowed to discharge that function, as this is part of accountable and transparent governance.

“That is democratic governance… This government has no apologies for by law equipping ministers with powers that are, democratically across the globe ascribed to ministers,” Nandlall said.
Minister Croal, during his wrap-up of the debates, said that although the Bill was first laid in parliament in December 2022, the Opposition came some five months later to propose changes.
He told the house that despite this, at the last minute on Sunday, he was able to put together a team at short notice to host a meeting in relation to the Bill.

Prior to the drafting of the Bill, he noted that extensive consultations were held with all relevant stakeholders. Additionally, after the Bill was laid in the House, another round of consultations was held that dealt with the proposed implementation of the system.

Meanwhile, Croal said that while it was requested that the Bill go to a Special Select Committee, he asked that a meeting be called in the shortest possible time for the formation of this committee to complete the task and move ahead with the passage of the Bill within one month’s time.

Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir then told the house that the meeting of the committee of selection to consider nominees will be held this Friday.