Montserrat’s housing problem continues to suffer from mismanagement
02-08-2006
by Karen ‘Lioness’ Allen
Caribbean Net News Montserrat Correspondent
Email: karen@caribbeannetnews.com
BRADES, Montserrat: Montserrat’s Self-Build Housing Grant Scheme (SHGS), which has been discontinued since 2004, has now evolved into an issue rife with allegations of mismanagement and eventual abandonment.
The Department for International Development (DfID) picked up that irregularities had occurred in the administration of the scheme. As a result, DfID contacted PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and requested that they conduct a detailed process review of Phase II and III of the SHGS and the allocation of grants to individuals displaced by the volcanic crisis.
PricewaterhouseCoopers determined that discrepancies in the scheme became evident around Phase III when DfID stopped its meticulous scrutiny of the project and imposed a policy, by the then Secretary of State, to allow the Government of Montserrat (GoM) to maximize local decision making, at the same time justifying the effectiveness of DfID project management and suggesting that this problem would have been identified earlier had DfID’s management continued.
According to the Montserrat Self-Build Housing Phase III Project Memorandum, in which key details and justifications for Phase III are set out and agreed between DfID and GoM, the aim of the scheme is to provide “households in need with up to 100% of the costs of materials to build their own houses….”
After agreeing to the terms and conditions dictated in the Project Memorandum, the GoM established and implemented its own unauthorized process and procedures for the scheme.
In PWC’s final report of October 2004, it stated that the Land Development Authority (LDA) reported in April 2004, that 288 applicants had been approved at a cost of EC$12.9 million, which began in August 1998.
However, expenditure on Phase III was reported, by the LDA, as having reached EC$7.9 million as of April 2004 with 133 grants being awarded. Phase III was approved around April 2002.
The main findings of the PWC final report indicated that 100 of 292 successful grant recipients failed to provide information to show that they met the eligibility criteria. In two cases, grant amounts were paid directly against applicant’s mortgages, as opposed to being put towards materials.
“Throughout…the project there are people who would appear not to qualify for grants who have been awarded grants and there are also people who would appear to qualify…who have received less grant than…they may have been entitled….”
The report also identified several cases, which placed Government officers in situations that led to a potential conflict of interest.
According to PWC, on 5 August 2003, the Chief Minister wrote to the Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Housing and the Environment (MALHE) requesting that certain senior government figures be awarded a Self-Build Materials Grant.
This was despite the Permanent Secretary’s advice that several of these persons did not qualify for the Self-Build grants. This is just one example of a significant number of grants given to applicants who did not qualify, to include individuals from the LDA.
PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that every management system for Phase III was incompetent, pointing out the questionable lack of records and documentation of the entire project. In the end, PWC determined, with regards to Phase II and Phase III, DfID and GoM poorly managed and administered the project.
On 14 November 2005, the LDA held a public meeting to announce the launch of its new housing scheme, ‘Vision 2010’.
During this meeting, Permanent Secretary of MALHE, Mr. Eugene Skerritt, admitted that the ministry was “standing at a crossroad in a pursuit for Montserrat’s future housing development”, further admitting that quite a large number of the population still had no housing or substandard housing.
Permanent Secretary Skerritt requested that the public think of innovative ideas that the ministry can develop into real ideas for the people.
During the Vision 2010 public meeting, the ministry disclosed that a recent review of the 2001 – 2006 Housing strategy revealed that a “self sustaining housing market is far from being achieved.”
When questioned by the attending public, MALHE representatives stated that access to financial resources remained the first on their list of things preventing LDA from addressing Montserrat’s housing needs, admitting then that the ministry was still in discussions with DFID representatives at that time.
On 7 February 2006, Caribbean Net News contacted the Permanent Secretary of MALHE, Mr. Eugene Skerritt, for the date when the ministry would resume approving housing grants under the scheme.
Mr. Skerritt informed Caribbean Net News that the ministry is in the process of finalizing those grant applications that were already submitted. However, current negotiations with DfID representatives dictated that the European Union has only committed to housing the mentally challenged and some vulnerable of the existing population.
As far as monetary funding goes with regards to Montserrat’s housing grant scheme, DfID only agreed that the sixty houses scheduled for construction during the Lookout Phase II project be sold and apply the money received from the sale of these house to Montserrat’s housing grant scheme.
Once these funds have been depleted, MALHE would have the burden of identifying and utilizing financial resources of its own accord to address Montserrat’s housing crisis. This approach is due mainly to the GoM agreeing to a declining grant and aid framework.
With DfID’s refusal to extend additional financial support beyond their established agreement, this crisis has now evolved into a burden for the GoM to shoulder, a burden the Government now admits it can’t bear.
Copyright © 2003-2006 Caribbean Net News
More blogs about Social Policy.
Caribbean Affairs Institutional Strengthening.
02-08-2006
by Karen ‘Lioness’ Allen
Caribbean Net News Montserrat Correspondent
Email: karen@caribbeannetnews.com
BRADES, Montserrat: Montserrat’s Self-Build Housing Grant Scheme (SHGS), which has been discontinued since 2004, has now evolved into an issue rife with allegations of mismanagement and eventual abandonment.
The Department for International Development (DfID) picked up that irregularities had occurred in the administration of the scheme. As a result, DfID contacted PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and requested that they conduct a detailed process review of Phase II and III of the SHGS and the allocation of grants to individuals displaced by the volcanic crisis.
PricewaterhouseCoopers determined that discrepancies in the scheme became evident around Phase III when DfID stopped its meticulous scrutiny of the project and imposed a policy, by the then Secretary of State, to allow the Government of Montserrat (GoM) to maximize local decision making, at the same time justifying the effectiveness of DfID project management and suggesting that this problem would have been identified earlier had DfID’s management continued.
According to the Montserrat Self-Build Housing Phase III Project Memorandum, in which key details and justifications for Phase III are set out and agreed between DfID and GoM, the aim of the scheme is to provide “households in need with up to 100% of the costs of materials to build their own houses….”
After agreeing to the terms and conditions dictated in the Project Memorandum, the GoM established and implemented its own unauthorized process and procedures for the scheme.
In PWC’s final report of October 2004, it stated that the Land Development Authority (LDA) reported in April 2004, that 288 applicants had been approved at a cost of EC$12.9 million, which began in August 1998.
However, expenditure on Phase III was reported, by the LDA, as having reached EC$7.9 million as of April 2004 with 133 grants being awarded. Phase III was approved around April 2002.
The main findings of the PWC final report indicated that 100 of 292 successful grant recipients failed to provide information to show that they met the eligibility criteria. In two cases, grant amounts were paid directly against applicant’s mortgages, as opposed to being put towards materials.
“Throughout…the project there are people who would appear not to qualify for grants who have been awarded grants and there are also people who would appear to qualify…who have received less grant than…they may have been entitled….”
The report also identified several cases, which placed Government officers in situations that led to a potential conflict of interest.
According to PWC, on 5 August 2003, the Chief Minister wrote to the Minister of Agriculture, Lands, Housing and the Environment (MALHE) requesting that certain senior government figures be awarded a Self-Build Materials Grant.
This was despite the Permanent Secretary’s advice that several of these persons did not qualify for the Self-Build grants. This is just one example of a significant number of grants given to applicants who did not qualify, to include individuals from the LDA.
PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded that every management system for Phase III was incompetent, pointing out the questionable lack of records and documentation of the entire project. In the end, PWC determined, with regards to Phase II and Phase III, DfID and GoM poorly managed and administered the project.
On 14 November 2005, the LDA held a public meeting to announce the launch of its new housing scheme, ‘Vision 2010’.
During this meeting, Permanent Secretary of MALHE, Mr. Eugene Skerritt, admitted that the ministry was “standing at a crossroad in a pursuit for Montserrat’s future housing development”, further admitting that quite a large number of the population still had no housing or substandard housing.
Permanent Secretary Skerritt requested that the public think of innovative ideas that the ministry can develop into real ideas for the people.
During the Vision 2010 public meeting, the ministry disclosed that a recent review of the 2001 – 2006 Housing strategy revealed that a “self sustaining housing market is far from being achieved.”
When questioned by the attending public, MALHE representatives stated that access to financial resources remained the first on their list of things preventing LDA from addressing Montserrat’s housing needs, admitting then that the ministry was still in discussions with DFID representatives at that time.
On 7 February 2006, Caribbean Net News contacted the Permanent Secretary of MALHE, Mr. Eugene Skerritt, for the date when the ministry would resume approving housing grants under the scheme.
Mr. Skerritt informed Caribbean Net News that the ministry is in the process of finalizing those grant applications that were already submitted. However, current negotiations with DfID representatives dictated that the European Union has only committed to housing the mentally challenged and some vulnerable of the existing population.
As far as monetary funding goes with regards to Montserrat’s housing grant scheme, DfID only agreed that the sixty houses scheduled for construction during the Lookout Phase II project be sold and apply the money received from the sale of these house to Montserrat’s housing grant scheme.
Once these funds have been depleted, MALHE would have the burden of identifying and utilizing financial resources of its own accord to address Montserrat’s housing crisis. This approach is due mainly to the GoM agreeing to a declining grant and aid framework.
With DfID’s refusal to extend additional financial support beyond their established agreement, this crisis has now evolved into a burden for the GoM to shoulder, a burden the Government now admits it can’t bear.
Copyright © 2003-2006 Caribbean Net News
More blogs about Social Policy.
Caribbean Affairs Institutional Strengthening.
