KENT

PROBE

by TREVOR YEARWOOD

CABINET COULD SOON BE having a close look at the controversial sale of state land in Kent, Christ Church, to determine whether laws were broken.

Minister of Housing and Lands Michael Lashley made the disclosure on Friday while delivering the weekly lecture at the Democratic Labour Party's (DLP) headquarters in Belleville, St Michael.

Lashley said in an interview later: "The matter will be discussed internally at the NHC [National Housing Corporation] and then it will be forwarded to Cabinet."

He said he was "very disturbed" by the development.

Auditor General Leigh Trotman first raised some concerns about the land sales in a scathing Special Audit of the NHC covering the five-year period April 1, 2003, to March 31, 2008.

Leigh said that under the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration, more
than 80 acres of Government-owned land earmarked by the NHC for housing were eventually sold to private developers, contrary to decisions
of Parliament.

Minister of Economic Affairs David Estwick, who attended the lecture, said the NHC had acted ultra vires of the mandate given by Parliament.

He told the gathering that Government needed to treat the issue with the gravity it merited.

Government Senator Jepter Ince said: "I want to know, as a citizen of Barbados, what happened to the $16 milion as stated in the Auditor General's report from the sale of land at Kent that was supposed to go to Country Park Towers.

"All of Country Park Towers never got out the foundation until this present Government came to office. I want a full investigation."

In the lecture, Lashley gave an update on Government's programme to house the nation.

He reported that hundreds of homes were being built across the island, while Government was moving to give more long-standing tenants ownership of NHC units.

He also said Government was worried about the alleged "squandering" of a $12 million NHC loan facility under the previous administration.

According to Lashley, the special loan programme was "whittled away" in the 1990s.

He complained that no due diligence checks were made on the applicants and it was later found that a number of them had given incorrect information about employment and other factors.

"We are still trying to recover monies loaned in 1999," Lashley said.