The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) has denied that a senior officer refused to submit information requested by the Board as alleged in several recent reports in Kaieteur News.
In an advertisement in yesterday’s Stabroek News, the CH&PA said “At no time did any senior officer refuse to submit the requested information: That is simply not true”. The ad acknowledged that there were delays in the provision of information and this was attributable to some of the information being with forensic auditors and the time needed to provide additional details that were requested.
The CH&PA said that in the February 28, 2016 edition of KN it was alleged that the former Director of Finance had “disappeared since the May 11, 2015 General and Regional Elections”. The Authority denied this, saying that the official was on “active duty” for the period May to September, 2015 and resigned with effect from October 5, 2015. The Authority said it was also alleged that Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Myrna Pitt had never explained his absence to the new board. The Authority denied this and said that the CEO at several meetings indicated to the new board that the official had resigned.
Other KN reports were also cited. The Authority said that in the March 13th 2016 KN edition it was alleged that the Deputy Head had proceeded on leave and left outstanding requests for documentation pending. “The Deputy Head did proceed on leave for eight …days, but left the information which was requested for submission to the Land Allocation Committee”, the CH&PA said.
The advertisement also labelled as untrue the March 16th 2016 KN report stating that the Deputy Head of the CH&PA had refused to submit information and that the “Hon. Minister Valerie Adams-Patterson (was) `focused on the launch of the 50th Anniversary deal for applicants’”. The CH&PA ad also adverted to the March 17 KN edition which again accused senior CH&PA officials of not providing information.
The CH&PA said that since May 2015 a comprehensive report was prepared for the incoming ministers and submitted to them. This included information on the structure of the CH&PA, on the Second Low Income Settlements Programme and on projects such as the Remigrant Scheme, the 1000 Homes Perseverance scheme, East Bank Housing Developments and the Georgetown Seawall Project Initiative.
The CH&PA said that appended to the report were additional documents such as the CH&PA allocation policy; the list of housing schemes, allocations and occupancy status; the list and status of land sold to private developers, the CH&PA repossession policy and the list of its bank accounts and balances as at May 20, 2015.
“There are many challenges facing the CH&PA, some of which were touched on in the various (KN) articles. These challenges have to be overcome by respectful interaction between/among the various levels within the organization and a concerted effort made to work together to deliver the mandate to the Guyanese people”, the advertisement added.
