Embattled St Ann’s Bay Mayor Michael Belnavis is a director of a private company that captured government land and constructed a building in a daring disregard of the country’s laws which the corporation he leads is expected to enforce, a Sunday Gleaner probe has unearthed.
Amid insistent Sunday Gleaner queries last week and a refusal from Belnavis and the parish authorities to answer questions, news filtered in on Friday that the unfinished structure, which stood up to Thursday evening, was gone by Friday morning.
The Sunday Gleaner investigation has also uncovered that when whispers started growing louder about the construction, the firm, City Mall Management, rushed to submit a letter requesting a “no objection” from the St Ann Municipal Corporation, which is chaired by Belnavis, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) councillor for the Ocho Rios division.
A Sunday Gleaner team visited the park on June 18, where the unfinished structure was seen on the property, which adjoins the Towne Centre Plaza, a 10-year-old commercial complex owned by Mayor Belnavis.
Meanwhile, Belnavis and other officials of the St Ann Municipal Corporation were last week grilled by Integrity Commission investigators, The Sunday Gleaner understands.
