Nassau, The Bahmas – Since coming to office, the FNM’s stop, review and cancel policy has resulted in a sudden halt of new homes being built under the vibrant housing program developed under Shane Gibson and continued by Neville Wisdom. Under the FNM’s Kenneth Russell, not one house has been built, despite the FNM’s grandiose promise of building 3,000 homes in five years.
The FNM claims that before they can begin building, they have to “clean up the mess left by the PLP with the homes built.” Former Housing Minister in the PLP Cabinet, Shane Gibson summed it up perfectly when he said “If they had allocated the money when they first came to office those minor problems would have been corrected. The major problem is getting land, design and approval. Where ever there is no infrastructure it is because they stopped paying the contractors. Where ever there are unfinished houses, it is because they are not paying contractors. Simply put, they are clueless.”
Nothing can happen unless money is allocated to do it. They are now causing the taxpayers to pay millions of dollars, which only homeowners paid in the past, by not allowing Mortgage Corp to issue bonds and instead having $5 million dollars paid from the public treasury. According to Mr. Gibson, there has never been an issuance of bonds that has not been fully subscribed. This directly contradicts Kenneth Russell’s claims late last year that the reason nothing has been done was a reluctance by the FNM to issue bonds to be sitting out there for any extended period.
As Mr. Gibson rightly points out, they simply do not have a clue. See the video clip below that sums it all up.
