NHC needs K300,000 to pay staff

By Rebecca Kuku
THE National Housing Corporation currently does not have the money to pay its employees, and needs K300,000 to do so, says managing director Kenneth Cooke.
He was responding to complaints by employees who had not been paid for the past three weeks.
Cooke told The National the NHC was not able to generate sufficient income to sustain itself.
He said the NHC, similar to other State agencies, was facing some “temporary setbacks”.
Family members told The National that employees had been facing delays in the payment of salaries since 2016.
Cooke said because the housing policy had not been reviewed since the ’70s, NHC homes were being rented out at between K5 and K280 fortnightly.
He said the corporation could not sustain itself with the revenue it was generating from its properties.
Cooke said he had been trying to sort out the money problem which would take some time.
“The previous management usually sold off NHC houses before every pay day to meet the salaries of the staff,” he said.
“This resulted in a lot of problems because most of the sales were not done using proper procedures.
“So we have issues where people who bought the houses now wish to have their money refunded because the house titles were not transferred legally.
“We are trying to sort out all these issues and hopefully, staff will get their salaries by the end of the week.”
Cooke thanked the staff for their understanding and patience, saying it was only a temporary setback which would be sorted out soon.
“We now have a very supportive minister (John Kaupa) who is working closely with the management to sort all these issues.”