(Office of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas) – Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis stepped away from the CARICOM Inter-Sessional Meeting on Wednesday to view first-hand a sustainable housing community that could be used as a model for the Government’s planned housing development project on Abaco.
The Prime Minister toured the Villages at Coverley, a modern housing development located in Christ Church. The community features low- to middle-cost energy-efficient homes built to withstand a Category 5 hurricane, a 5.0 earthquake, storm surges and major flooding. The fully planned development also offers residents a medical centre, gym, restaurants, stores, recreation centres and sports fields.
Extracted from Caricom Today – PM Minnis tours Barbados sustainable housing development
The information conveyed in the article quoted reinforces for those in the know and should persuade others with doubt how to secure business if politicians are the decision makers. In this case the blogmaster can pick any number of concerns but there one.
Barbados Underground has featured many blogs highlighting questionable transactions with the previous government and Mark Maloney. The one which sticks in the craw is how monies sitting in the Housing Credit Fund at the Central Bank of Barbados were approved to pay Mark Maloney for the GROTTO project. The Board of the Central Bank at the time actually approved a special dividend (the first in the fund’s history) to make the payment.
There is no need to rehash events about the GROTTO and payments from the HCF, read blogs posted on the matter in BU Archives:
- Kellman, Sinckler and Lashley: GROTTO Housing Project and the Ineffective Public Accounts Committee
- The GROTTO: Solicitor General ‘Opinion’ Deems Dividend Payment from Housing Credit Fund Illegal
- Denis Kellman: Question Time About the GROTTO High Rise Project NOT Potholes
- Auditor General Special Audit of the National Housing Corporation -The GROTTO and Valerie
- Preconco Towers Closed for Business at the GROTTO
- Central Bank Declares SPECIAL Dividend to Pay Mark Maloney for the GROTTO Project
- Mark Maloney is The GROTTO
The Housing Credit Fund was established in 1993 under an agreement with USAID to on-lend to financial institutions to fund low cost housing. In 2004 the Central Bank of Barbados announced the following:
The Central Bank of Barbados hereby announces that on February 1, 2004, it assumed responsibility for the management of the Housing Credit Fund (HCF), previously administered by the Ministry of Housing, Lands and the Environment.
The HCF operates as a second tier mortgage market wholesaler and provides funds to financial institutions which in turn on-lend to individual borrowers. The Fund commenced operations in 1982 with initial funding of Bds$20.0 million, the proceeds of a U.S. dollar loan raised by the Government of Barbados. The Fund’s portfolio is currently valued at over Bds$100 million.
The principal objectives of the HCF continue to be:
- To help to alleviate the overall shortage of housing in Barbados
- To improve significantly the existing housing stock
- To shift the initiative for housing towards the private sector and
- To broaden the ownership base of housing in Barbados.
The irregularities with the GROTTO are well documented starting with a read of Auditor General reports. Mark Maloney was paid with public funds for the GROTTO project that to this day demands the government of the day start an investigation. Instead, it is businesses as usual for the usual suspects even with a change in government. While the government of the day was creative in finding money to pay Mark Maloney, several small contractors had to suck salt because government was unable to pay invoices. Several have folded. Maloney however is still flying high on the hog.
Disclaimer: The blogmaster has nothing against the gentlemen,
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