PM Browne says over $100 million spent, to date, on National Housing and the claims of its accumulated assets are overstated

Prime Minister Gaston Browne says that well over $100 million has been spent, to date, by National Housing.
 
This sum is only an estimate, Browne admits, since he did not have the precise figures on hand when questioned by Barbuda MP Trevor Walker in Parliament, on Monday, October 24.
 
However, on average, Browne says, about $15 million is spent yearly on the government’s housing project.
 
According to the Prime Minister, National Housing, which began operating in 2015, has net assets totaling over $105 million.
He adds that any accumulated assets held by the company are not in the hundreds of millions of dollars, as is being claimed. Rather, he says, they are just shy of EC $10 million.
 
Consequently, Browne promises to file the agency’s current accounts – if not the audited statements, then the draft accounts, as presented by the auditors – with the Parliament.
 
The call for National Housing’s statements to be laid before the House has been made for years. Hence, MP Walker says he hopes the Prime Minister will keep his promise, noting that he would, indeed, love to see and examine the audited statements.

In the meantime, complaints about the quality of National Housing’s workmanship continue to be circulated, with home-owners alleging that corners were cut in the construction of their houses.