Given the fanfare with which it was announced just four months ago, the paucity of information on the abrupt cancellation of the State’s US$71 million agreement with a Chinese firm for construction of 5,000 public housing units is unacceptable.
Wasn’t this supposed to be a flagship project for the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) which, according to Housing Minister Edmund Dillon, would significantly boost efforts to reduce the huge deficit in public housing?
Very likely, as is the case with so many initiatives of this magnitude, the devil is in the details. However, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, who announced the cancellation of the project during yesterday’s post-Cabinet media briefing, didn’t offer any real insight into what went wrong with this agreement between the HDC and China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Co Ltd (CGGC), finalised in May after more than a year of negotiations.
In its first phase, the project was expected to produce 204 two and three-bedroom apartment units at South Quay, Port-of-Spain and 235 at Lady Hailes Avenue, San Fernando. CGGC was to be responsible for financing, design, procurement and construction of the housing blocks.
A further explanation should be forthcoming, if not from Dr Rowley himself, at least from the Housing Minister who declared at the signing ceremony for the project in mid-May that it was “a defining moment for the housing construction industry.”
Now that the hopes of the thousands of aspiring homeowners on the HDC’s very long waiting list have once again been dashed, is this now a case of back to square one? There was no mention during yesterday’s announcement of an alternative arrangement—a Plan B—to produce the high volume of units promised through this project.
An even bigger concern is the HDC’s continuing failure to provide “affordable, well-designed housing accommodation and adequate infrastructure and amenities” for middle and low-income citizens.
While there has been no definitive word on why the agreement with CGGC was cancelled, there had been early warning signs that all was not well with the project. The most telling was the Freedom of Information request filed soon after Fazir Khan took the helm of the Joint Consultative Council (JCC) a few months ago.
The prevailing concern was the lack of information about the project which had been launched with so much ceremony with several senior Cabinet ministers and HDC officials in attendance. The JCC raised very valid concerns since the project was not tendered and no information was supplied about the cost and terms of financing and other crucial details. This lack of transparency is worrying given the magnitude of the project.
Given the concerns about the processes involved in signing off on this project, it is good that it has been halted. However, this is another avoidable misstep on a state project for which the Government and the HDC should account in full to taxpayers.