BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – WHILE many brows have been raised with the National Housing Corporation’s (NHC) inability to produce financial statements in its 12 years of operation, Minister responsible for Housing Hon. Cedric Liburd has reassured the public that the statutory body is preparing and completing the necessary documents.
“I want to say that I have already made a statement in Parliament on that issue indicating that presently we have the accountants at the NHC preparing the accounts. We also have an additional staffing at the NHC; we have employed an additional firm to assist us in making sure that we are able to prepare and complete the financial statements.
“Our auditing firm is part of that dialogue and discussion and, therefore, some time very soon we will have the accounts up to date to be laid in Parliament,” Liburd informed at his recent press conference.
According to the Finance Administration Act of 2007 which governs statutory bodies, each statutory corporation must prepare the necessary financial statements with proper and adequate notes within six months after the end of each financial year. The Act states that these documents should consist of a statement of the assets and liabilities of the statutory body at the end of the financial year and a statement of the revenue and expenditure of the statutory body during the financial year.
Other statutory corporations including the St. Christopher-Nevis Social Security Board and the St. Kitts-Nevis Development Bank have been able to produce financial statements to be tabled in Parliament. However, during its 12-year existence the NHC has not been able to table any such documents.
“As Minister, I have been pushing the Manager and the Board of Directors to have all of the accounts up to date as quickly as possible,” Liburd asserted.
In February, 2004 the NHC embarked on an EC$20M programme to construct “low-income homes” around St. Kitts and, in April, 2005, NHC started an EC$16M town house construction project financed through a loan from the St. Christopher and Nevis Social Security Board. Yet, there have been no financial evidence of such transactions being laid in Parliament as required by the Financial Administration Act.
“However, even though our accounts are not up to date, in terms of having audited statements, I am pleased to say that NHC has been making sure that we meet all of our financial obligations.
“We had about three loans from Social Security and all of them are up to date with the payments. So I want to give you the assurance that we are making sure that all areas at NHC will be updated and we will make sure that we push as quickly as possible to have in all of the statements audited and ready to be laid in Parliament.”
Although the Minister of Housing did not explain the delay in producing the documents, he indicated that accounts would be retroactive, but did not give a timeframe by which this would be completed.
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