By Andre Bagoo Sunday, September 5 2010

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Housing Minister Roodal Moonilal speaks to reporters at the Coco Reef Resort and Spa, Store Bay, Tobago, yesterday. ...

THE GOVERNMENT plans to construct over 6,000 housing units throughout the country in the upcoming year, Minister of Housing Dr Roodal Moonilal said yesterday as he disclosed that he has ordered an investigation into the state of 400 housing units at Tobago.

“We are looking at constructing over 6,000 units in the next year,” Moonilal told reporters gathered at the scenic seafront Coco Reef Resort and Spa at Store Bay, Tobago, during a break from a four-day workshop held there.

The Housing Minister said he would investigate a series of housing projects in Tobago in the wake of recent queries which have revealed a problem of jurisdiction over their management, a problem which he said could cost taxpayers millions.

“The housing stock in Tobago is both under the Tobago House of Assembly and Udecott,” he said, “strangely they do not fall under the Housing Development Cor-poration (HDC).”

He said initial examinations have unearthed, “what we believe to be an anomaly” in relation to the current housing stock in Tobago.

“We have on paper houses said to have been allocated but when you look at it the houses are unoccupied,” he revealed. This, he said, could result in further expenditure.

“I am afraid if this housing stock is left unoccupied, we will have the same problem of disrepair in Tobago as we have in Trinidad,” he said. “We already have to repair houses to the tune of $100 million.”

Moonilal said he would meet with the Tobago House of Assembly Chief Secretary Orville London and the HDC managing director Jearlene John “in the next two to three weeks... to certify what we believe to be an anomaly.”

Moonilal lamented the involvement of Udecott in Tobago housing, saying the issue would have to be probed.

John yesterday said she did not understand what was the State’s initial thinking in having houses constructed by Udecott when they could have been done by the HDC, the state body charged with increasing the country’s housing stock. “I don’t know what was the thinking behind Udecott building houses,” she told Sunday Newsday yesterday. “I just know they were handed over at some stage.”

John, who is also the current Udecott chairman, yesterday explained that Udecott constructed houses in Tobago for the client THA and that the HDC was brought in “at a later stage” to manage some of these projects.

“These projects were started by Udecott and the THA. We stepped in to project manage,” she said. “Throughout Trinidad you have housing developments being done by Udecott.”

She confirmed the status of houses being unoccupied and agreed with Moonilal that this represents a potential further cost.

However, she said, the allocation of houses is not an issue for Udecott or the HDC.

“He is correct but the allocations procedure lies with the THA. We project manage to completion and then we hand over to the HDC,” she said.