Housing Minister blames CHPA for contract award to husband - CHPA chief says board should review contract award

Apr 07, 2019 News, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...view-contract-award/

Minister of Housing, Valerie Patterson-Yearwood, is now the subject of public scrutiny after it was publicized that her husband, Contractor and Pastor, Godfrey Yearwood, was issued housing contracts by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA).

[From left] Minister of Housing, Valerie Patterson-Yearwood; President David Granger; and Pastor Godfrey Yearwood, at the couple’s 2017 wedding

The CH&PA is a public agency under Miniser Valerie Patterson-Yearwood.
While many view the awarding of contracts by CH&PA, to her husband, a conflict of interest, Patterson-Yearwood attempted to wash her hands clean of the issue.

During a visit to Guyhoc Park on Friday morning, the Minister was approached by members of the media and asked about the issuance of contracts to her husband. She told them that she is not responsible. “The Minister is not engaged in issuance of contracts.”

She has oversight for CH&PA but has indicated to the press that she will not answer for actions taken by the body.

She said, “The management and the board of directors of CH&PA. Anything to that effect, speak to them.”

The Minister denied knowing whether her husband was granted contracts after the two got married but said she knew that he has a current contract.

The two married in August 2017 at her residence in Bel Air Gardens, Georgetown. She said that her husband was given contracts in 2016 and early 2017, before they were married.

Leader of the Opposition, Bharrat Jagdeo, raised the issue at a press conference on Wednesday last. He had said that in 2018, President, David Granger was written to about the issue and his office responded, acknowledging receipt of the letter.

Jagdeo had claimed that the sub-contractor was not paid. This is what prompted the letters to the President, he said.

“He can’t pay his workers from the village of Victoria because the Minister’s husband is refusing to pay them for contracts that he got in a Ministry that his wife runs,” Jagdeo told the press.

The issue in question was that Godfrey Yearwood has reportedly not paid his sub-contractors. On Friday morning last, Chief Executive Officer of CH&PA, Lelon Saul, said that his office was notified of this issue.

“A complaint was lodged at the Ministry – I think it was some time last year – and we called in both parties and we advised them to settle the issue,” Saul said.

Asked whether the awarding of contracts to the minister’s husband is a conflict of interest, he said, “If the contractor in question is the spouse of the Minister, certainly, it would be a conflict of interest,” but he refused to comment on how the notice of this issue would influence the work of CH&PA with contractors.

He said, “I would not like to comment on that because the award of contracts is above my level.”

He opined that if the contractor was indeed the minister’s husband, the board should review its decision to make the award.

A contract to build housing units as part of the ‘Housing Solutions 2017 and Beyond’ programme is among the contracts Yearwood was awarded.

Kept in the extremely close PNCR family.

That is one fugly couple. Usually brides look beautiful but even that magic couldn't work here.