Not me and the bacchanalBy Alexander Bruzual Saturday, August 29 2009
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CLEAVER HEIGHTS: One of the incomplete phases of Cleaver Heights in Arima....
Although Housing Minister Emily Gaynor Dick-Forde would not directly comment yesterday on the status of the forensic report prepared by Bob Lindquist on the Cleaver Heights housing project in Arima, she did indicate the ministry was in possession of several similar reports which were being used to improve governance at the Housing Develop-ment Corporation (HDC).
Speaking to reporters briefly at the Vision 2020 Youth Fora at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port-of- Spain, Dick-Forde explained the reports were being used to assist in what was described as the transformation of the HDC.
“With the HDC we are currently going through a major change and these reports would only assist in how we improve governance. We have already taken several of these reports into account, especially with a lot of the issues raised with respect to the financial management of the company, which is what this report (the Lindquist forensic report) would have been focusing on,” Dick-Forde explained.
Questions about NH International (Caribbean) Ltd (NHIC) chairman Emile Elias’ pursuit to have the State reveal the contents of Lindquist’s report also went unanswered by the Housing Minister. “I don’t like responding to those kind of things. To me Cleaver Heights is simply a housing development and we are really trying to make sure that we have quality units to hand out to people. We aren’t interested in all the bacchanal and back and forth people seemed to be focused on,” Dick-Forde said.
She explained the ministry was currently hard at work to ensure remaining units would be completed and distributed to citizens in the near future. However at the time she was unaware of any completion date for the project, explaining she would have to get an update from the HDC.
She acknowledged the project would seem to be “dragging on” to some people, however she stressed the HDC was committed to working harder to ensure the units would be completed.
“Sometimes a site is finished visually, but is not electrified or doesn’t have water. It is these administrative things which cause delays, and we are trying to tighten those gaps,” Dick-Forde said.
On January 27, Dick-Forde announced in Parliament that Lindquist was hired to conduct a detailed forensic investigation into the Cleaver Heights Housing Development project. Since then, details of Lindquist’s investigation have been kept secret, with the minister not revealing the cost of the investigation.
Since then, Elias has been calling on the State to reveal the results, going as far as to ask attorneys to write to the Uff Commission of Inquiry to ask the commissioners to compel the State to produce the report.
