Mickela Panday
Whilst the people of T&T continue to grapple on a daily basis with the financial adjustments announced by the People's National Movement in their recent mid-year budget review, the extent of mismanagement of the nation's resources without transparency or accountability continues to take the spotlight in Parliament and in the media.
In particular, last week it was revealed millions of dollars was paid by a number of People's Partnership ministries for unoccupied buildings, several of which are yet to be outfitted. Whilst this may have come as a shock to any right-thinking citizen, it appears this act of wanton wastage is not new. On rented properties that remained unoccupied, it was revealed in one case, a total of $47, 813,544.78 was paid for the period 2009 to 2015 for rental of a building in St Clair and still remains unoccupied to date.
At the same time, for the past five years the mega Richmond Street Government Campus Complex, which includes two 23-storey towers, is yet to be outfitted and it too, to date, remains unused for the purpose for which it was constructed, namely to house ministries and government departments.
How can any government justify spending billions of taxpayers' dollars to construct an unused complex, and then proceed to squander millions more on paying private owners to rent buildings for government offices that should be housed at the complex?
Why should people be required to line up and wait outside in the sweltering heat before they are attended to at the passport office on Frederick Street, when money is being thrown away on paying rent for unoccupied buildings? This scandalous wastage must end. The Government must sort out its own internal housing mess quickly. Public servants deserve modern offices so they can serve the public efficiently.
If that was not reprehensible enough, recently the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) has been putting notices in the daily newspapers claiming that ten of its large housing developments are now "mortgage ready" and advising occupiers to get mortgages from the T&T Mortgage Finance Company Ltd (TTMF) or commercial banks or face eviction.
So how did we get here? It appears, before HDC applicants were allocated and given possession of their new homes, they were assessed for suitability for mortgages to purchase units at these developments–all well and good. However, because these developments lacked planning approval and/or the lands upon which they were constructed had never been vested in the HDC at that time, mortgages could actually not be obtained, so an interim measure was put in place where occupiers were required to enter into a one-year "licence-to-own" arrangement (LTO) or a "rent-to-own" arrangement (RTO) with the HDC. Under the LTO, the occupier pays a licence fee roughly equivalent to a mortgage instalment, while under the RTO, for lower income earners, a monthly rent is paid.
Then out of the blue the HDC changed its tune and via the notice stated that LTOs and RTOs will not be renewed and failure to access mortgages will result in eviction, even though several of these developments are still lacking planning approval and formal vesting orders have not been made, so they are not in fact "mortgage ready." If this is the case, why is the TTMF, which is the agent of the HDC for payment of LTO fees and RTO rent, badgering occupiers to get mortgages?
Further, several occupiers have expired LTOs and RTOs and are terrified by the notices and the TTMF's veiled threats. This is unfair and smacks of oppression, particularly where many occupiers have recently been laid off, or now get a reduced income because of the current state of the economy. Many of them probably do not now qualify for the mortgage which they had been assessed as able to obtain when they were allocated homes.
The Government and the HDC need to exercise restraint and be more sensitive to the plight of these occupiers, many of whom waited for decades to get homes, and need to be honest as to whether these developments really are "mortgage ready" as they say.
If they are, then flexibility should be shown to those occupiers in dire straits. Efforts should be made to ensure that those occupiers, already in possession and having already made a home, could stay there. Yes, the Government needs more revenue, but shouldn't get it unscrupulously from people burdened by new taxes, and hikes in fuel and food prices.
Equally worrying is that the notices also say that occupiers can apply for mortgages at commercial banks who, flush with liquidity and happy to lend, are known to be savage with delinquent mortgagors. Occupiers can expect no mercy from them. The questions then arise, will the commercial banks be limited, when they sell HDC units because of non-payment, to selling the units to waiting HDC applicants only, or will they be allowed to sell on the open market to anyone?
If the latter proves to be the true state of affairs, and the banks are not restricted as to whom they sell, we stand the real risk that government housing will become even harder to access by the needy and deserving. That being the case, the Government must put an end to the useless haemorrhaging of the country's resources and as a priority, place the needs of the people who are most in need first or face an inevitable social crisis.