Minister to announce housing recovery team

Housing and Urbanisation Minister John Kaupa, pictured, says a “National Housing Recovery Team” has been established and will be announced in due course.
Kaupa told The National yesterday that he had intended to establish the team to assist the National Housing Corporation (NHC) improve the database of all its properties.
“I just told the National Executive Council (NEC) yesterday that I am putting up a National Housing Recovery Team and that it would be launched in due course,” Kaupa said.
“The recovery team is made up of lawyers, accountants, auditors, engineers, valuers and some other stakeholders who will be participating in that.
“We will be sending officers out to all the four regions of the country.
“We will all go there to physically check all the properties of the National Housing Corporation.
“We will physically check, get an asset registry so that all those information will be computerised, so I will know the total number of properties under my ministry.
“Currently we are using a manual system in NHC so now we are trying to change it.”
Kaupa said they were overhauling the system so that more revenue would be generated to ensure that affordable housing could be available nationwide.
“We have done a restructure and we are a now working on the housing policy,” Kaupa said.
He said that he appreciated the budget allocated to his ministry.
“It’s a very tight budget. I was given K6 million, I want more but where can I get it?” Kaupa said.
“I will work with what I have. I started with nothing, as long as the Government gave me K6 million, that’s fine.”