Opposition wants PNP treasurer off NHT board
THE Opposition has called for the immediate removal of People’s National Party (PNP) treasurer Norman Horne as a member of the board of the National Housing Trust (NHT).
“I can’t believe how barefaced this government is,” Opposition spokesman on finance and planning Audley Shaw said, as he made the call at the Jamaica Labour Party’s (JLP’s) post conference briefing at Belmont Road in Kingston Tuesday.
Shaw was supported by both Opposition Leader Andrew Holness, who noted that Horne, a businessman, had objected to the NHT’s purchase of the Outameni property, according to the minutes of board meetings; and JLP spokesperson on Informatiom, Youth and Culture Olivia “Babsy” Grange, who felt that Horne should have followed Paul Burke’s example of resigning from the board of the Social Development Commission (SDC) after being named PNP general secretary.
Shaw insisted that the NHT’s action in purchasing the Outameni tourist attraction in Coopers Pen, Trelawny, for approximately $180 million in March, 2013, was a departure from its legal basis for investing.
“But even if you are departing from it, shouldn’t you be guided by the fact that the project was a total failure?” he asked.
Shaw said that information available on the transaction suggests a grave dereliction of duty on the part of the NHT, for which the entire board should be required to resign.
He said, however, that the JLP had taken note that two members of the board have resigned.
Senator Kavan Gayle, president of the JLP-affiliated Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU), and Helene Davis Whyte, general secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers (JALGO) and a vice-president of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) resigned from the board Monday.
“But it is curious that of the members who remain on board, there are spokesmen that have been coming out defending the said project every day, and it is also curious that the treasurer of the People’s National Party is a member of the board of the NHT,” Shaw stated.
“I think that, in itself, is inappropriate… it is true that he might have been appointed to the board before he became treasurer but, from the moment he became the treasurer of the PNP he should resign. You cannot be treasurer of the PNP and have the job of managing one of the largest funds that government owns on behalf of the people,” the Opposition spokesman said.
Shaw said that one of the custodians of the trust’s finance should not be also a custodian of the financing of a political party.
“That is improper, irregular, inappropriate and unacceptable,” Shaw insisted. Horne was confirmed as treasurer of the PNP in July. He was the only candidate for the job to succeed Mark Golding, who left the post earlier in the year.
Horne is chairman of the ARC Group of Companies, one of Jamaica’s leading importers and manufacturers of building materials.
He rejoined the PNP in 2006, after leaving the party in 2002 to join the JLP.
He was made an Opposition member of the Senate in 2003 by Edward Seaga, but broke with the JLP after Seaga’s departure to become an independent senator. He resigned from the Senate following his readmission to the PNP in 2006.