Enjoy perks provided by BSP

I REFER to the letter by “Happy BSP employee” of Port Moresby (“Look after your yard, Kumbakor”, The National, Sept 10).
The writer sounds like a former disgruntled casual in the public service now serving as a bank teller or tea boy.
His attack on one of Papua New Guinea’s most senior and valuable state ministers in Andrew Kumbakor is short-sighted  and does not take into account the holistic picture and conflicting issues facing the housing sector and industry.
Considering the rate of population growth in our urban and semi-urban centres, PNG’s population is expected to triple 10 years from today.
The government is the biggest employer in many developing nations and having to provide adequate housing, let alone adequate housing allowances for each employee, is an impossibility and a far-fetched dream.
Unlike the 1970s when the National Housing Commission was able to provide housing from the tea boy upwards due to a stronger kina and manageable population, today’s excessive state liabilities and misappropriation have prompted the government to take a semi-privatisation approach, transforming the commission to the National Housing Corporation (NHC Act 1990).
By this policy, it is hoped that an institutionalised NHC will promote managerial prudence and financial independence while simultaneously promoting the state aim for housing sector expansion via new land acquisition and housing construction.
However, there are two fundamental and conflicting policy options that require a trade-off or sacrifice on the part of the housing ministry.
And that is whether to increase housing allowance significantly for public servants to make housing affordable or to provide more housing for public service employees via cost subsidisation of new land and housing construction.
Obviously the latter was chosen.
The writer need not look further than the housing developments behind Gerehu stage 2 to appreciate Kumbakor’s intention to house more families and their wantoks rather than for public servants to resort to the expensive real estate industry which is cherry-picking the housing market under the nose of the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission.
I recommend the writer to enjoy his perks and privileges with BSP while he can.

Dr Lagaip
Port Moresby