OLD HOUSING RENTAL MONIES WRITTEN OFF

There is a massive problem with the rentals of National Housing Commission (NHC) in Papua New Guinea. Over the years, rental payments have been siphoned off by corrupt NHC officers. As well, houses have been stolen with the records deleted from the register.

It means that many tenants have been paying rent but the payment is not registered against their name. This has been going on for years to the point that corrupt housing officers have undoubtedly stolen hundreds of millions of kina. Repair and maintenance has been totally absent.

Now the housing of NHC has been passed over to a new body called National Housing Estates Limited (NHEL). Some housing appears to remain. Corrupt NHC officers still need a little income to steal.

The question does arise as to how many houses have been passed over to NHEL? Has the rental arrears been passed over too. But an even bigger question arises? Has NHEL received the rental files for each house received?

If not, we may ask if NHEL has the task of collecting NHC rental arrears. If not, are they just collecting free money?

In the house in which I have stayed in Garia Street, the old man took out a new lease in early 2014. He did this because I had paid the bond and first rent for the new lease. They had no rental files on the house so he had to bring in his old receipts.

What would have happened if he had been paying the rent but lost his receipts? He would have been deemed to have been in arrears for thousands of kina. The customer is always wrong.

The question arises of how many other NHEL units have no rent record in Head Office. Some weeks ago, a family was evicted from their unit.

The Managing Director of NHEL announced that the family owed K200,000 in rental arrears. Does NHEL have records to support this? Or is this just a fantasy of guess work?

If NHEL does not have the records of rent, then the arrears that came across from NHC should be written off and the tenants start anew. So tenants have debts and NHC officers have stolen millions. It may all balance out in the end.

It comes down to the fact that evictions require a Court Order. If NHEL has no record of rental arrears and dependent on guess work, then they will avoid Court and rely on violent evictions from bully boys and rogue cops.