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Hundreds occupying Govt. quarters for free refuse to leave- Region Four Chairman
REO Region Four, Pauline Lucas
Despite efforts of the Region, hundreds of persons continue to occupy government quarters for free and are refusing to leave.
Giving an update on the issue, Regional Executive Officer, (REO) of Region Four, Pauline Lucas has said that the State is now considering taking court action against the unwelcomed boarders.
Lucas noted that the Region has been working with the other agencies to try and remove the squatters. Their efforts have so far yielded minimal results.
The REO said that State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA) was asked for assistance to have the occupant leave the premises.
According to Lucas, the Region has issued hundreds of warning letters to occupants. However, out of a close to 100 households, the REO said only six households have heeded the warning and moved out.
The Region Four official said that many of occupants do not pay a rent and are basically freeloading off of the State for decades. Lucas said that squatting in government living quarters has been an incessant problem, which she inherited.
One of the buildings utilised by the Government to provide housing for State employees
In many cases, Lucas said the current occupants are descendents and relatives of retired/deceased government employees, who refuse to leave the State’s living quarters.
At this juncture, the REO said, the State is relying on a multi-stakeholder approach to remove the squatters. She said that among other things, the State is considering taking the persons to court to recover the properties.
In 2016, Auditor General Deodat Sharma found that out of 300 buildings owned by the Region Four Administration, 132 were occupied. However, only 26 of these occupants were actually paying rent, and the SARA has since been called in to assist in the eviction of those not paying rent
In his report, the Auditor General had noted that the squatting continues unabated.
Sharma flagged the issue in his 2017 report, detailing that over $1 million in rent remained outstanding. According to the report, the issue is of particular concern with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure.
The Ministry had a total of forty-two flats available for rental to public officers during that fiscal year.
According to the report from a perusal of the rental file, rental register and other supporting documents, the AG was able to determine that 37 flats were rented, five flats were vacant, and 14 were rent free.
“In addition, it was noted that, as at December 2017, the sum of $1.444 million. This includes the sum of $669,000 for 2016 and $775,000 for 2017. It should be noted that some tenants have rents outstanding since January 2016.”
“This contradicts clause two of their rental agreement, which states that the tenant agrees to pay to the landlord in advance the monthly rental,” the Auditor General reported.
Meanwhile in his capacity as Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Irfaan Ali has expressed dissatisfaction with the situation after it was revealed that 27 Region Six officers lived rent-free in Government quarters for over a year when they should have been paying rent.
In a bizarre twist, one of the officers has taken the Region to court to continue living at his quarter for free.
He questioned why it has taken so long for the matter to be addressed. He had called on Lucas to say how the Region has been responding to the issue. The REO had revealed that in addition to the guidance from the Auditor General’s findings, she asked SARA to get involved in the matter since the previous year.
The issue was also flagged by the Auditor General’s Office in 2015. During an audit of the region’s affairs, it was found that 72 residential buildings were occupied by officers of the Region, however the Regional administration was not in receipt of rents from the occupants.
Additionally, regional officials could not say if any of the properties were furnished, neither could they verify who were eligible to live rent-free.
This issue had raised serious questions of accountability by senior officers in the Regions, and why under the watch of a Regional Executive Officer and a Deputy Regional Executive Officer such an issue was not known.
It is believed that this issue may have cheated the government’s purse of over $7M over that period on non-payment.
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