Region Two REO says he used ‘discretion’ to allow rent-free use of gov’t quarters

Rupert Hopkinson

Region Two Regional Executive Officer (REO) Rupert Hopkinson yesterday told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that he used his “discretion” to allow personnel to occupy government quarters rent-free, although they were not entitled.

“I need to say that, instead of allowing a number of houses to remain unoccupied, for example—one person… instead of having too many houses that are unoccupied, we will make an allowance for senior persons who are not really entitled, but who, rather than having the houses exposed to wood ants and all of that, that they can occupy the house with the understanding that they’re doing so temporarily,” Hopkinson told the committee.

The committee was at the time probing an observation noted in the Auditor General’s 2015 report, which stated that of the 62 government-owned living quarters, 54 were occupied, but