Call it a gravy train, or money down a well.
Whatever the label, the reality is that an estimated $10 million in taxpayers’ money lent to budding entrepreneurs by the Urban Development Commission (UDC) can’t be recovered because of mismanagement of a loan portfolio and the refusal of many borrowers to repay.
UDC director Derek Alleyne told the Sunday Sun the loans were often handed out to people who shouldn’t have received them in the first place who ended up running away with “taxpayers’ money”.
They didn’t have any collateral to support the loans or ensure their repayment, he added.
It happened because an enterprise development scheme designed to finance small ventures ended up in a mess, with about 200 bad loans on the UDC’s books.
Read the full story in today’s SUNDAY SUN.
