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Govt. Housing Authority grosses $7.5B in 2011
…earns millions in interest from money for “Low Income Revolving Fund”
The Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA), which is the arm of the Ministry of Housing and Water that manages and issues house-lots, has reported total income for last year in the vicinity of $7.5B.
Irfaan Ali - Substantive Minister with responsibility for the Housing Sector
The department is headed by its Chief Executive Officer, Myrna Pitt, who would ultimately report to subject Minister, Irfaan Ali.
The Minister in tabling the Audited 2011 Report boasted of the administration’s commitment to transparency and accountability.
The report however has revealed that in 2011 a significant portion of this income for CHPA, specifically, $4.8B is listed as from “Infrastructure Projects-GoG.”
The second largest bloc of income for the Ministry’s Housing Department, relates to “sale of land” totaling $2B.
CHPA has listed under its ‘Statement of Comprehensive Income for the Year Ending 31 December, 2011″ a total income for the previous year, $1.9B.
This means that the reported income for CHPA, increased by close to 400 per cent last year as against 2010.
Sale of land in 2010 for CHPA netted only $889M while there was a $150M “subsidy” transfer, from the Ministry of Finance.
This trend continued as the CHPA continued receiving a $150M subvention from the government. This is despite CHPA’s positive accounts reflecting a surplus for the year.
In 2011, the Ministry listed $50M as earnings from the sale of “low income house lots,” while for the previous year there is no money reflected as income.
The Audited Financial Statements for that division of the Housing Ministry was tabled in the National Assembly yesterday, and it revealed that CHPA spent some $1.5B purchasing land in 2011.
Another $1.5B is reported to have been spent on “Urban/Miscellaneous Roads Project,” and CHPA also reportedly spent another $1.1B on “Eccles/Providence Development.”
No similar expenditure is reported for 2010 by CHPA, in a year when its largest amount spent was $680M on “GoG Projects.”
CHPA also boasts an almost $3B investment portfolio.
In the Audited Report which has now been made public, “Investments represent surplus funds invested in a mix of fixed deposit accounts and savings accounts at commercial banks….”
This means that the Ministry has an accrued $3B locked in private bank accounts where an interest is earned.
The amounts held by CHPA in bank accounts rose by more than $500M in 2011 with the largest amount lodged at Demerara Bank.
The Housing Ministry’s CHPA department has listed as an investment “$1.1B” at Demerara Bank, another $392M at Republic Bank, $723M at Citizens Bank and another $500M at GBTI.
The money at Citizens Bank is listed as “Citizens Bank Fixed Deposit Account”.
Myrna Pitt – CEO, Central Housing and Planning Authority
The account held at Republic Bank saw a decrease from $450M in 2010 to the $392M end of year figure for last year.
As it relates to the $2B Subvention which the Government had transferred for the establishment of a “low income revolving fund loan facility,” the account opened the year with $2.034B and closed $50M richer.
Over the course of the two years for which the fund would have been in effect, it has reportedly earned $84M.
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