HDC probe widens beyond Gonsalves, says Lee

Shas­tri Boodan

Free­lance Con­trib­u­tor

The Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) is con­tin­u­ing its probe in­to sev­er­al ques­tion­able mat­ters, ac­cord­ing to Hous­ing Min­is­ter David Lee. He spoke with Guardian Me­dia on Fri­day while at­tend­ing the Cou­va Point Lisas Cham­ber of Com­merce’s an­nu­al Christ­mas func­tion.

Lee said the HDC’s in­ves­ti­ga­tion ex­tends be­yond the re­port­ed pur­chase of apart­ments by rel­a­tives of for­mer St Vin­cent and the Grenadines (SVG) Prime Min­is­ter Dr Ralph Gon­salves.

“The probe is on­go­ing not be­cause of Ralph Gon­salves. We have a probe go­ing on in HDC for is­sues we would have en­coun­tered over the last few months since we took of­fice,” he said.

He added that the in­ves­ti­ga­tion al­so in­cludes a re­view of sev­er­al HDC main­te­nance con­tracts al­leged­ly award­ed with­out fol­low­ing prop­er pro­cure­ment pro­ce­dures.

“It is tak­ing a longer time, and it will soon be com­plet­ed. You will get the facts short­ly,” he as­sured.

Com­ment­ing on the re­cent change of gov­ern­ment in SVG, Lee said: “The peo­ple have spo­ken, and per­haps there is a time for change. I wish Mr Ralph Gon­salves well in his re­tire­ment, and I wish the peo­ple of SVG much love and suc­cess go­ing for­ward un­der a new lead­er­ship, un­der a new gov­ern­ment. I think our Prime Min­is­ter, the Ho­n­ourable Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar, will be work­ing close­ly not on­ly with SVG but with all Cari­com lead­ers.”