By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
BAHAMAS Mortgage Corporation chairman Alex Storr said remarks by his predecessor about government borrowing $10 million from the National Insurance Board to fund home construction were reckless and disingenuous.
In a statement issued yesterday evening, Senator Storr claimed Dr Duane Sands’ comments were nothing more than an attempt “to keep his party relevant”.
“I find his comments made in this morning’s Tribune reckless and disingenuous and designed strictly for the purpose of painting the government in an unfavourable light with the Bahamian people,” Mr Storr said.
On Sunday, Dr Sands spoke with The Tribune about the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Housing, NIB, the Ministry of Finance and the BMC.
Dr Sands claimed that the plan to borrow from NIB to build more than 100 houses would put the interests of pensioners and taxpayers at risk.
“I think the people at NIB should look critically at this so-called ‘investment’ that the government has proposed,” he said.
“With the plan that they are doing, they are putting the future of many pensioners and taxpayers at risk, unless the government can demonstrate that this is a good investment, and there is a good return on the public’s money.”
In response, Mr Storr said Dr Sands “should know and understand the precarious fiscal state in which his administration left this country.
“The government had to explore all avenues in which to fund its housing programme for the Bahamian people. Thus an agreement has been entered into between the Ministry of the Environment and Housing, the Ministry of Finance, the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation and the National Insurance Board” Storr said.
He defended the investment of the public’s money, calling it “sound”.
“The agreement will also give the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation a capital injection at a lower interest rate than within the private sector and will enable the corporation to increase its portfolio,” he added.
Mr Storr claimed the remarks by Dr Sands were merely “an attempt at political public relations for himself and his party and served to unnecessarily alarm the Bahamian people for selfish reasons”.
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