Chairman of the Board of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) Hamilton Green on Thursday said that no official from the agency will be fired but that everyone had pledged to work in harmony for the betterment of the housing sector.
“No one was fired or anything of that sort, what we had was a modus vivendi (an arrangement allowing conflicting parties to move ahead),” Green told Stabroek News.
There had been reports that several officials of the Authority had come under the scrutiny of the Board
The Board held a meeting on Thursday and Green said the focus was on the overall betterment of the agency and giving homeowners value for money.
“We looked at the housing programme. We will have three meetings (this) week to meet with the foremen and applicants…we settled everything and will be working together,” the CH&PA Chairman asserted.
Housing schemes on the East Bank of Demerara assigned to private businesses have also come under intense scrutiny in recent months.
And while the CH&PA Board wanted a halt to the current 50th Independence anniversary discount being offered to some house lot awardees, sources told Stabroek News that the programme will continue as planned.
An official at the housing agency had last week told Stabroek News that when they met, members discussed the expected losses as a result of the initiative and were not pleased.
“It will cost us over $2B and we are not sure the beneficiaries of the offer will really benefit,” an official of the agency, who asked not to be named, had said.
The official explained that given that government was concentrating efforts on completing infrastructural works in housing schemes throughout the country, the monies that would have been lost could have been channeled to that effort.
Junior Minister of Communities, Valerie Sharpe-Patterson, who has special responsibility for the housing sector, had last month announced that the agency was offering a ‘50/50’ special payment option to recipients of government house lots, who were allotted lands valued $3 million and less, in residential areas.
Sharpe-Patterson stated that this initiative allows for persons who have completed paying 50% of the cost of their house lots by May 1, to benefit from a 50% discount on the balance. However, Sharpe-Patterson explained, the balance must be paid by the end of May.
“If you have an allocation for a house lot that cost $1 million, and by the first of May, you would have paid $500,000 which is 50%, then you have a 50% discount on the balance of the $500,000. So, you now have a discount of $250,000,” she explained while adding that persons had until April 30 to complete the 50% payment of their allocations to qualify.
Sharpe-Patterson stressed that only those who would have acquired house lots in residential areas that are valued $3 million and less would be eligible. Therefore, those with allocations in re-migrant schemes or industrial areas would not be eligible.
However, this would not exclude individuals who would have benefited from the turn-key home initiative in areas such as Perseverance on the East Bank Demerara. The minister explained that while both the house and land come at a combined cost of $4.9 million, the land in itself is valued $500,000. As a result, persons with the turn-key houses would also be able to qualify for the 50% discount on the land alone.
