By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Under-staffed regulators cannot catch all building code and planning violators without tip-offs from law-abiding Bahamians, a Cabinet minister has revealed to Tribune Business.

Desmond Bannister, minister of works, told this newspaper in a recent interview that even if some enforcement and building inspections were outsourced to private sector professionals such as engineers there would still be insufficient manpower to police the entire Bahamas.

With the Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) Hurricane Dorian review revealing that non-compliance with the Bahamas Building Code has resulted in "significant damage" to buildings during every major hurricane to strike this nation since 2015, Mr Bannister said the Government simply does "not have the necessary number of people" to properly enforce this critical mandate.

"Enforcement is going to be critical. You and I know that," the minister added. "Even in New Providence we have serious problems with code enforcement and persons who have been evading the law.

"What has been helpful to us is many, many neighbourhoods have been calling in and bringing things to our attention that should be brought to our attention. People have been doing all sorts of things. They've been building without permits, they've been doing structures that should not go up, building too close to boundaries and putting up commercial structures in residential areas.

"All of these things are going on," Mr Bannister continued. "If you look at Abaco, the reality is that any of those Family Islands - not just Abaco - it's a challenge to put officers on those islands to enforce the Building Code.

"The ministry does not have the personnel, and until we collaborate as suggested we would with the professionals, we're going to have this challenge. When you have an island like Abaco or the east end of Grand Bahama, the ministry has a limited number of officers. There's no way to get around everywhere and know what people are doing until someone comes and alerts them to it.

"The public service does not have the necessary number of people, and even when we collaborate with the professionals it's going to be a challenge. We have to get kind of tip-offs from informants about people doing things they ought not to be doing."

Mr Bannister's admissions on Building Code enforcement woes come as the construction industry and its related professions await developments on its promised review and upgrade following the $3.4bn worth of damage and losses that Dorian inflicted 12 months ago on Abaco and Grand Bahama.

The minister said Craig Delancey, former Building Control chief and now a deputy director at the Ministry of Works, has been tasked with leading the effort and reporting to him on the progress made before year-end 2020.

"He's doing his research and consulting," Mr Bannister told Tribune Business. "He's now full-time pulling together the research that's going to be required to put this Building Code together. Whatever has to be done, he's doing that full-time.

"It's a huge priority but it has to be done properly. It doesn't make sense just to try and pull something together. We have to do it properly." His comments came after the IDB's recently-released Dorian report affirmed that Building Code enforcement and compliance, rather than its content and strength, remain The Bahamas' primary weakness.

"In the evaluation of the information gathered from housing sector authorities, it was observed that The Bahamas has improved, updated and published a reasonably integrated, comprehensive and rigorous building code that is aligned with the goal of protecting the population and the physical assets of the country," the IDB said.

"However, the magnitude of Hurricane Dorian and subsequent observed damage exposed gaps in the enforcement of existing regulations and the potential need to undertake an extensive building code review.

"Most of the houses assessed with significant signs of damage were not complying with the building code, especially in remote areas. It is worth noting that this situation repeats itself in every assessment conducted since 2015," the multilateral lender added.

"During the assessment mission, government representatives conveyed the challenge of establishing a management/supervisory programme to assure the correct application of the code due the geographical spread of the houses and lack of financial and human resources.

"Correct application of the norms requires appropriate compliance and enforcement mechanisms, which includes training for public officials responsible for approving construction permits, establishment of accountability measures and sensitisation of the population."

The IDB report added that "houses in Treasure Cay and other areas constructed with specific standards, materials and methods presented a significantly more robust and resilient structure" whereas most of the homes destroyed in Marsh Harbour suffered "a total collapse of the wooden roof structure".

"As a rule of thumb less populated, low-income and isolated communities (very common in archipelago countries such as The Bahamas) have challenges in the application of the building code due to lack of quality or quantity of construction contractors, construction supervision and appropriate inspection to guarantee the enforcement of the building code," it said.

Gustavus Ferguson, the Institute of Bahamian Architects (IBA) president, backed by the IDB report by telling this newspaper that enforcement rather than the Building Code itself was the main challenge facing this nation.

Arguing against reviewing the Code simply for the sake of it, he added: "The lack of enforcement creates a lot of the issues we saw in the hurricane. If I were to describe things, I would be generous in saying the agency responsible for enforcement has been under-performing. That's the real issue relating to the Building Code."

Branding the current Code as "stringent", Mr Ferguson said any review needed to focus on ensuring building materials and practices are current rather than be focused on making changes.