‘Housing’ shake-up… Insider says CEO’s tenure raised many questions
–Board was unhappy with her performance
IN THE wake of calls for her resignation, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA), Myrna Pitt has done just that.
According to chairman of the land allocation committee, Mark Jacobs, who confirmed that Pitt’s resignation will be effective July 13, the CH&PA Board was not at all happy with her performance.
For starters, he said, members of the Board, ever since its installation in October 2015, had raised concerns over the Remigrant Scheme, the 1000 Homes project at Providence, and the management of the houselot distribution programme.
In terms of the Remigrant Scheme, he said, several questions have been raised over the conditions under which persons benefited from lands at Providence.
Concerns were also raised over the recent announcement of an ambitious 50th Anniversary housing programme to have persons only pay half down on a houselot, and have the rest written off.
Board executives, Jacobs said, have been complaining that they have met stumbling blocks in receiving information requested from CH&PA staffers.
Those requests, he said, had to do with several transactions to the tune of billions of dollars that the entity had embarked on.
The contracts also included large plots of land along the East Bank of Demerara that were sold under questionable arrangements to 20-odd private developers.
Some of the plots were flipped for tens of millions of dollars more, without any work being done, in breach of CH&PA agreements. Many of the developers were close friends of the previous administration.
The ministry had been in receipt of complaints from some owners about the poor quality and shape of buildings because of sloppy construction; however, the Ministry of Communities, which is charged with housing, has announced plans to spend monies to fix those defects.
Another concern of the board’s, was the questionable disposal of hundreds of acres of land on the East Bank of Demerara, with little monitoring to ensure that there is compliance by developers to meet deadlines.
