The Government is owed more than $9 million in rent by residential and commercial tenants.
This was revealed by Minister of Housing, Lands and Rural Development George Payne in response to questions posed in the popular Saturday Sun’s Question Time column that targets those in authority to hold them accountable.
Payne said that a sum of $6.2 million was owed to the National Housing Corporation (NHC) while the Crown was owed just over $3 million in rent, with commercial tenants owing just over 90 per cent of the latter.
On the other hand, prior to the Government’s BERT programme, the Government owed private landlords $44 million as of July last year. The bulk of that money, $35.24 million, is owed to the National Insurance Department and a $4.78 million share to Barrack’s Construction, the company with which the Government has been locked in a battle with over the office building at Warrens, St Michael.
“These amounts were to be dealt with under Government’s BERT programme. Since August 2018, however, every effort has been made to keep rental payments current,” Payne said in his written response to the questions.
In relation to whether all Government houses, both in and out of the NHC estates, were occupied by legitimate tenants, Payne said 1 200 units remained under the control of the NHC. The NHC’s housing management department was processing 25 applications for change of tenancy to people who were occupying the unit with the original tenant.
But Payne warned: “In cases where persons take occupancy outside of the circumstances outlined above, the corporation would initiate action to recover the unit.”
Payne delivers
The February 16 Saturday Sun directed a series of questions at the minister on the properties of the Government, and within three days Payne delivered his answers.
“The Crown maintains a land terrier which contains a list of its properties, including several large estates and a significant number of smaller parcels. It insures 1 343 properties valued at $3 246 803 923. Besides these, there are some disused buildings as well as vacant lots,” Payne said.
“New geospatial technologies now allow the Lands and Surveys Department, working in collaboration with the Coastal Zone Management Unit, Property Management Unit and the Barbados Water Authority, among others, to plot the locations of all lands owned by the various Government agencies. This process is ongoing, but unfortunately, not yet completed. So the Government is aware of the vast majority of its properties, if not all,” the minister stated.
Not all the lands were in active use and while some are being held as part of a policy for sustainable development, the majority of land is being used for housing, recreation, culture, education, industry and tourism, he said. ( AC)
