Alexander defends HDC contractor selection process despite OPR findings

Ke­jan Haynes

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Alexan­der has de­fend­ed the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion’s (HDC) se­lec­tion of con­trac­tors for a $3.48 bil­lion hous­ing pro­gramme, ar­gu­ing that the com­pa­nies were drawn from the Of­fice of Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion’s reg­istry and sub­ject­ed to fur­ther fi­nan­cial checks be­fore con­tracts were signed.

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How­ev­er, Alexan­der did not ex­plain why the HDC can­celled the pro­cure­ment pro­gramme on June 17 if, as he main­tained, the con­trac­tor se­lec­tion and due-dili­gence process­es were sound.