Housing in bad state: Kelai

THE National Housing Corporation (NHC) is in a very bad state and that is no secret, says board chairman Edric Kelai.
He said suggested solutions by previous managements were regarded as “band aid solutions” and that it would take time to restore the corporation to a proper functioning state.
“If it was in the private sector, this institution would have been bankrupt a long time ago,” Kelai said.
“The issues that we have in NHC have been complex and extensive and this has been going on for decades.”
The NHC board revealed that outstanding debts, operational failures, inappropriate administration, legal issues and mismanagement were all issues that NHC was facing.
“The NHC Act 1990 is outdated and does not reflect the current needs and demands of the housing sector,” Kelai said.
He said there had been a lot of graft, corruption and theft of NHC resources. “This has become systematic to a stage where certain syndicates now exist within the organisation that collaborate in fraud. Nepotism is very much evident in the employment and retention of personnel.”