Kumbakor condemns remarks by NHC boss

By ISAAC NICHOLAS
HOUSING Minister Andrew Kumbakor has condemned statements from National Housing Corporation managing director Paul Asukusa which, he said, were in effect challenging the Government.
“It’s very embarrassing and very bad for Government chief executive officers to challenge their employers,” he said yesterday.
He said he welcomed the current media coverage on the corporation to expose “the rot” within the management.
He said it would assist the Government to put in place a competent management team to ensure that the corporation carried out its responsibilities, in particular, building houses for the workforce.
“As minister responsible for housing, it is my duty to provide political leadership and directives to the NHC board and the management to ensure we have a strategic and sustainable housing policy and a suitable financing programme to overcome the acute housing problem in the country.”
Mr Kumbakor said it was unfortunate that the corporation’s management was refusing to cooperate with him and the board to address the housing problem, resulting in little coordination on budgetary drawdowns to build new houses.
He pointed to the Gerehu programme as one example.
“The groundbreaking has already been done but the houses have yet to be built because of a lack of coordination from the NHC,” he said.
He said the problems were compounded by poor financial and asset management.
“The corporation hardly resembles an institution established to perform its mandated duty,” he said.