Home-less

SOME 65,000 public ser­vants have waited four years without benefiting from a K40 million housing scheme announced in April 2008, a senior government coalition party has revealed, The National reports.
 Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah’s PNG Party president Robert Akunai said 10 houses had been built and four stood uncompleted in Port Moresby.
None of the houses had been bought under the scheme.
In a move that would raise eyebrows, Akunai called on Public Services Minister and leader of New Generation Party Bart Philemon to inform the nation’s public servants the latest progress on the controversial housing scheme for public servants nationwide.
Akunai had called on the Ombudsman Commission, the police Fraud Squad and the Task Force Sweep team to investigate, arrest and prosecute those involved if any of the funds were found to have been misused or stolen.
Akunai raised concern that since the ambitious public
service housing project was hatched by the National Executive Council (NEC) on April 18, 2008, not a single public servant had benefited from it by owning a home.
“The nation’s 65,000-odd public servants have waited for almost four years and not one officer has be­nefited from this project,” he said.
Akunai said Philemon was not only duty-bound but had a moral obligation to inform the public servants and the nation’s taxpayers the progress of work on the housing project.
“Philemon should not simply sweep the issue under the carpet.”
He said the minister ought to summon those who had received the money to furnish him with a report.
Akunai said he personally inspected the project site last weekend at the western end of Jackson International Airport in Port Moresby to find 10 houses completed and four incomplete buildings