THE housing debacle continues.
Our people have long ago lost interest in the tug of war between the National Housing Corporation’s managing director and the current Housing minister.
If the minister’s statement published yesterday is accurate, the corporation’s MD Paul Asukusa continues to hold his top position despite a recommendation from his board to the National Executive Council that he should be terminated.
Minister Kumbakor says he is waiting for the NEC to make a decision.
What is the truth behind this situation?
Few observers doubt that the NHC has for many years been riddled with scams and major corruption. Houses have been leased out at peppercorn rentals and other properties have been sold in a clandestine manner to cronies and wantoks of both political and public service figures.
In the past, it was often the practice for senior politicians to make housing demands of the NHC; houses that caught the eye of ministers and government members were rapidly declared vacant and awarded to politicians for their use.
Does this practice still continue?
Public servants within the corporation have allegedly been guilty of manipulation of tenancy agreements, the awarding of occupancy to wantoks and friends and widespread accusations of bribery demands from frustrated applicants.
PNG has a major accommodation problem.
Grandiose schemes to build hundreds of houses in huge corporation estates must not be entertained.
Has none of the NHC hierarchy heard of the world-wide disaster that has been created by these soulless housing schemes?
Are they unaware of the current mass demolitions of these misguided estates?
And in a nation with our present record of crime, the creation of congested housing schemes populated by families with nothing in common would be an open invitation to further extend and deepen our current youth problems.
There is a great need for an in-depth assessment of PNG’s housing requirements, one undertaken not by faceless and unqualified public servants, but a sensitive and far-reaching series of plans involving Papua New Guinean planners, architects, engineers, surveyors and builders.
There seems little point in encouraging our young men and women to undertake university courses in these fields if we fail to grasp such an outstanding opportunity to make use of our skilled local expertise and for once, get it right.
The minister has spoken warmly of Singaporean expertise in mass housing and claimed that it would benefit PNG to seek Singapore’s assistance.
We question that assumption.
The housing policies of Singapore are designed for a tiny city state with precious little land. High rise apartments have become the norm; like Hong Kong, expanding populations mean that the only way to build is up.
Hundreds of families crammed into spaces that would certainly be regarded as inadequate by Papua New Guineans appear to us to be no answer at all.
We urge the Government to talk with our own skilled professionals, perhaps even fund competitions that would come up with ideal PNG house prototypes – designs suitable for large families, for smaller families and for couples and single accommodation.
Our own architects and town planners could be encouraged to compete and devise a home-grown and better answer to the crime-ridden housing estates common overseas.
The worst result for PNG would be a perpetuation of the timber framed three-bedroom bungalow set on a 500 sq metre block, beloved of cheap estate builders in suburban Australia.
This is PNG, not Australia; our climate is different and our life style and social patterns have little in common with those of our Southern friends.
We should already have learned this by now; our capital is riddled with ill-maintained Australian colonial housing now being demolished to make way for greedy PNG and overseas landowners intent on squeezing the last toea out of congested and cheaply built units.
These are the proper concerns of an innovative staff at the NHC.
The present wrangling between minister and managing director is intolerable.
We urge the Government to recruit professionally qualified young PNG men and women to head the National Housing Corporation, people with an awareness of the nation’s public housing needs and the practical skills to turn those visions into affordable realities.