21 October 2023 12:00 am Views - 75
By Yohan Perera
Accumulated losses of National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) have exceeded Rs. 20 billion while disparities have taken place from 2015, as revealed by the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) yesterday.
The total of losses at NHDA has been Rs. 5 billion during the last few years. Total loans that have to be collected are more than Rs. 10 billion. It was revealed that loans worth Rs. 10 billion have been disbursed in 2011 without any collateral.
The losses have occurred during the tenures of various ministers, even during the previous Yahapalana government.
It was further revealed that some 5,296 were recruited to the institution during the period from 2015 to 2019 while 2,148 had been from Hambantota District. Accordingly NHDA has been overstaffed until recently while an extra sum of Rs. 2,148 million has been spent for salaries as a result of an over-staffed situation. However, the trained staff of the institution has been removed as of now and only 167 are working at the moment.
NHDA was requested by COPE to come up with a report on recovery of loans within three months.
Meanwhile it has also been found that construction of 98,000 houses has been halted due to the financial crisis. NHDA officials have informed COPE that a sum of Rs. 24 billion is needed to complete the constructions. NHDA had requested funds from the Finance Ministry to complete the construction. COPE also instructed NHDA to construct an online data base on loans. An ultimatum was given for the NHDA to submit annual performance reports of the past years. Accordingly the institution is expected to submit annual reports to the House before December 31 this year.
State Ministers Jagath Pushpakumara, Janaka Wakkumbura, MPs Rohitha Abeygunawardene, Eran Wickramaratne, Nimal Lansa, Nalin Bandara Jayamaha, S. M. Marikkar, Jagath Kumara Sooriarachchi, Premnath Dolawatta, Upul Mahendra Rajapaksa, M. Rameshwaran and Madura Vithanage participated in the COPE meeting.