$50M to repair houses built by Manning government

Housing Minister Dr Roodal Moonilal on wednesday put a $50 million price tag on necessary repairs to new homes built by the Housing Development Corporation (HDC).

Moonilal toured six housing projects in South Trinidad following reports of shoddy workmanship and corruption in the housing authority.

"This is an expensive mistake and we are learning the lesson. But we will not rush the construction of units, what we have to do now is bring money to repair these units, to build retaining walls, because projects were rushed and not properly done," he told reporters.

Moonilal said contractors did not carry out proper soil tests before building the homes and there are no retaining walls for the properties that have been built on prime agricultural lands.

The minister said many of the problems have been caused because of "a mad rush" to build and distribute houses.

"At this point I don’t want to cast blame on the contractor, HDC, Government or Opposition. I am concerned about us getting resources and getting a plan of action together to see if we can deal with this matter and allocate the homes to people who are deserving and have been waiting, in some cases years and years.

"When time comes to cast blame we will do that at another forum," he said.

"We would have to look at the funding and ensure that HDC has sufficient funding to undertake these repairs," he said adding that when that is done his ministry proceed to give out the homes.

However he said officials will have to take a close look at the allocation procedure and make whatever changes necessary.

"We have a special concern for people waiting 10 and 15 years, for housing units. We want to deal with these cases as a special category of applicants," he said.