Opposition spokesman on housing Dr Horace Chang
KINGSTON, Jamaica — Opposition spokesman on housing Dr Horace Chang says that the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), while in power, was approached to purchase Outameni but rejected the offer.
“We were approached to buy the property and the JLP Government rejected the proposal because the entity was not a viable prospect. We are very concerned that persons would seek to involve the JLP in this mess when we did the right thing and saved the tax payers millions of dollars in expected losses,” Dr Chang said.
According to Chang, use of the National Housing Trust (NHT) money to purchase such an entity is disrespectful to contributors and a breach of the NHT’s statutory mandate.
“We rejected it because we were not going to risk tax payers’ money in that way. Furthermore, use of the NHT was not on the table. Under the JLP Government, the NHT did, however, perform its mandate. It started work on addressing the shortage of low-income housing in Trelawny by buying hundreds of acres in Trelawny for low income housing, especially for workers in tourism.
“It is scandalous and outrageous that the NHT did not spend some of those millions of dollars on building on those secured lands for the benefit of contributors. That would have been reasonable and responsible and proper use of contributions unlike this action which is gross and suspicious.”
Dr Chang added: “I certainly support the calls for the Contractor General and the Auditor General to investigate this matter in detail.
“We also believe that this PNP led government must account to the Jamaican people for the decisions it has been taking, including this last egregious one. We cannot as a country continue to operate in this way and persons who demonstrate this sort of reckless behaviour with hard working Jamaican’s money must be held accountable. In this case Mr Easton Douglas has shown that that he is not working in the interest of the contributors. He and his Board must go,” Dr Chang insisted.
