THE top brass of the St Elizabeth Homecoming Foundation – drivers of the social, economic and cultural development of the parish – have questioned the positioning of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority (NaRRA) as the foremost agency to lead Jamaica’s post-Hurricane Melissa rebuilding, arguing that the far more established Urban Development Corporation (UDC) should have been given the mandate.

Director of the foundation, Ambassador Byron Blake, who is a former deputy secretary general of Caricom, said too much is hanging on NaRRA, the true shape of which is yet to be seen. He was speaking during the Jamaica Observer’s most recent Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Corporate Area headquarters.

“My first take on it is, until I saw something coming to the Parliament, I didn’t know what this thing is about. My second take is that the man who takes up as CEO [Major General Antony Anderson], about six months after the disaster says, ‘I need three months to get my administrative structures, and I need another three months, so I am not going to begin to operate really until the end of 2026.’ The gentleman basically said, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t have a plan,’ ” Blake asserted.