House sales halted

By MALUM NALU
PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill says there is a moratorium on the sale of government houses by the National Housing Corporation.
He said that yesterday when asked by Goroka MP Bire Kimisopa as to what the Government would do to help long-serving public servants in Goroka forcefully evicted from their homes by the NHC.
O’Neill said while an investigation was being conducted into the management of NHC, “I will instruct that all sales be stopped until I submit a report to this house in the November session of Parliament”.
“We have a dire situation in Goroka,” Kimisopa said.
“(This involves) a number of PNG citizens – not local Goroka or from Eastern Highlands – notably from the coast, who have served a number of years, some as teachers, some working for the Department of Health and a number of them holding senior positions in the Department of Works.
“Recently, the Goroka district office did engage a lawyer to prevent forceful sale of houses that were done illegally – engineered out of Port Moresby through their office in Goroka.
“We have citizens of this country – two from Sepik, one from Madang, one from East New Britain – who are literally on the streets in Goroka.
“I have taken initiatives to prevent Housing Corporation from enforcing.
“My plea to the prime minister, through this house, is to notify the housing corporation that there should be a moratorium, a permanent stop, on any house within the housing corporation.
“It’s inhumane, it’s illegal, it cannot be happening like that.
“A number of citizens, who have served in the public service in Goroka, have paid for their house through fortnightly deductions so they can’t be living on the streets.
“Would you assure this house that there would be a moratorium imposed immediately, advising the senior head of housing corporation to cease all sales?”