Housing concerns

The National’s editorial on May 8 “Government needs to address housing issues, compels me to comment on the current plight of public servants – serving and retired – occupying State-owned houses and flats at Salamander suburb in Lae, for over 30 years now.
While other public servants in other parts of the country have been enjoying and benefiting from the various Government/ sanctioned home ownership sales schemes, the public servants here have been totally neglected and denied the opportunities to equally participate in these schemes.
Since the mid 1980s and the late 1990s, the government’s so-called entity entrusted to manage its various home ownership sales schemes, the corrupt and incompetent, NHC, had continued to be blatantly ignorant of the Salamander suburb tenants’ housing concerns.
Numerous requests and correspondences to the NHC minister and managing director, to arrange for the sitting tenants to be involved in the sales schemes had continued to be ignored.
They are aware of the required processes and procedures to enable the tenants here to be eligible for the housing sales schemes, but nothing of that sort had materialised to this day.
Even the lands minister and his department secretary had not been responsive to the tenants’ concerns, regarding their individual leasehold titles, although only some had been issued.
Even the Chief Secretary Isaac Lupari, who is supposed to be accountable to the plight of his loyal public servants, also ignored requests (sent through his email address) to investigate and assist with the tenants’ concerns.
The request to the chief secretary was taken as a last resort as the two most corrupt government institutions (referred to above), were not able to address the tenants’ concerns at the time and even to this day.
Such ignorant attitudes coming from such government institutions and officials entrusted to manage and implement the government’s housing policies, is to say the least, totally ridiculous and outright stupid.
So whom else are the tenants to go to or to see with their concerns, if these attitudes continue?

Lorenitz Gaius
Ketskets village