Restructure saves govt K6mil

THE National Housing Corporation (NHC) has saved the Government K6 million after restructuring the organisation, Housing and Urban Development Minister Justin Tkatchenko says.
Tkatchenko said the funds were from the staff annual salaries after reducing the staff ceiling.
He said this when updating the business community on NHC in Port Moresby.
He told the private sector that the government had terminated contractors for the Durand Farm housing project.
“We have realigned and restructured every position in NHC,” he said.
“We are in the process of selecting qualified Papua New Guineans to take over the new and current positions in NHC.
“We reduced staff structure from 380 to 200, saved the government K6 million every year in staff salaries.
“We also removed the board and will be appointing new board members.
“For Durand Farm, we assessed all contracts awarded through NHC and the previous boards.
“Durand has been a disaster for many governments.
“No one has been able to do anything with that prime piece of property to develop low cost housing for our people,” Tkachenko said.
“The State Solicitor was tasked to go through every single contract that was awarded on the Durand Farm land and I’m pleased to say that all those contracts were cancelled three months ago.
“They have been terminated as they have not followed any process whatsoever and they were all fraudulent as per the solicitor’s advice.
“So from there we have now re-advertised for interested parties to follow the process and those companies in PNG that want to build low cost housing for Papua New Guineans.”