$145M HDC deal for Elias

Elias, who heads the board that oversees the majority Stateowned TSTT (Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), is the executive chairman of NHIC..

PricewaterhouseCoopers, Mitchell said, evaluated the bids..

Among those present for the ceremony were Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, MP for St Joseph and Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh, chairman of the San Juan/Laventille Corporation Anthony Roberts within whose jurisdiction the project falls, and Elias of NHIC - the winning bidder. In his address, Rowley said the contractor will be setting the example for others to follow, so that in a way he was “on trial.” One thing Rowley said he does not want is for the contractor to say that he was experiencing cost overruns or delays among other excuses..

Noting the subsidies that will be going into the project to meet the budget of low income earners, he urged those who will obtain the housing to pay their mortgages or rent. The project was blessed by parish priest for the Holy Family RC Church in Mount Lambert Fr Cornelius Phillips..

The HDC, through the Trinidad and Tobago Mortgage Finance Bank, has pre-qualified close to 1,000 applicants from the HDC database, who have met the criteria as prospective buyers for the units, Mitchell said. The affordable mortgage programme announced by Finance Minister Colm Imbert in the 2017 Budget, Mitchell said, would make the acquisition of the units more accessible to citizens..

He noted Imbert had also announced that there will be a 50 percent tax break and other fiscal incentives for private investors willing to contribute capital, land and other resources for the construction of public infrastructure such as housing. In this instance, Government has provided the land and NHIC will raise the capital, which the company will recover when the units are sold or rented..

Mitchell expects that 800 new housing units will be built under the PPP model during 2016 to 2018. The project which is due to get underway next month is expected to be completed by December 2018. Mitchell said since he took office, he has presided over two turning-of-the sod ceremonies for housing projects, but this was the first to be undertaken under the PPP model..

WHO IS EMILE ELIAS? Elias was appointed TSTT chairman on November 6, 2015, but prior to this the businessman was a prominent player in events under both the People’s National Movement (PNM) and the People’s Partnership (PP) administrations..

NHIC was the construction firm in the Landate scandal which involved Rowley, the Diego Martin West MP (now Prime Minister), over the shipment of materials for a private development of the Rowley family in Tobago and a connection to the Scarborough hospital which NHIC was building at the time. The matter was investigated by the Integrity Commission but the courts found the commission had erred by not giving Rowley a chance to respond to allegations of impropriety..

NHIC was also caught up in controversy over the same Scarborough hospital project which saw it spar with the former Patrick Manning administration after the matter went to arbitration. NHIC was also the contractor involved in the Cleaver Heights debacle when Manning (who died on July 2, this year) sparred with Rowley, the then Housing Minister, over his administration of the project..

Despite Manning’s claims, Elias denied anything was amiss, and a commission of inquiry into the public construction sector unearthed no wrongdoing..

Elias has also had a legal battle with Finance Minister Colm Imbert which saw the Diego Martin North-East MP being ordered in 2011 to pay over $55 million to NHIC, owed for work done on the Grenada National Stadium construction project in 1997. In 2009, when Imbert was Works and Transport Minister, Elias made a complaint to the Integrity Commission in relation to queries whether Imbert had filed all his assets to the commission..

Elias’ NHIC constructed the new $115 million Customs Building at the Government Campus Plaza. In July 2006, some 20 workers escaped death on that site when steel scaffolding, over 100 feet above the ground, collapsed..