People’s National Party (PNP) candidate for Kingston Central, Deacon Ronald Thwaites, is embroiled in a dispute with the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC) over fees related to the procurement of titles for Operation PRIDE beneficiaries.

On Saturday, Thwaites rejected a claim by the NHDC that his law firm, Daly, Thwaites and Company, owed the state agency $12 million as outlined in a letter sent to the firm in February this year.

“I deny owing the NHDC anything. If anything, it’s the NHDC that owes us,” Thwaites told the Observer.

Sources close to the dispute told the Observer that the letter was written after the completion of an audit of Operation PRIDE, the Government’s shelter programme for the poor.

However, the February letter came four months after the NHDC, in an October 5, 2006 letter, stated that its business arrangement with the law firm had been satisfactorily completed.

“The schedule of payments and accounts between the NHDC and Daly, Thwaites and Company has been reconciled and balanced to mutual satisfaction,” said the NHDC letter, a copy of which was obtained by the Observer and which was addressed “to whom it may concern”.

“The NHDC expresses satisfaction at the collaboration offered by Daly, Thwaites and Company in the execution of Operation PRIDE,” the letter continued.

It also appeared to have been penned in an effort to give an assurance that the law firm had met its obligations in relation to the procuring of titles.

“Daly, Thwaites and Company has secured titles for lots under their representation, and are collaborating with the legal department of the NHDC to achieve remainder,” the letter said.

On Saturday, Thwaites told the Observer that his firm represented the home buyers.

“We act for the provident societies, that is, the purchasers,” he said.

In response to the NHDC’s February 2007 letter, Thwaites, on April 10, wrote to the agency’s managing director, Joseph Shoucair, denying that the law firm was indebted to the state.

“We do not owe you the sum claimed. The fact is, you owe us for work done and submitted and acknowledged by your staff,” Thwaites wrote. “The reconciliation which you claim to have carried out comes in some instances two years after we have submitted documentation and after repeated pleas on our part that you verify these.”

Thwaites also accused the corporation of not being up-to-date with the reality on the ground.

“For many schemes we have had to provide you with beneficiary lists since the breakdown of your relations with the provident societies on several schemes has meant that you are not up-to-date with the situation on the ground and do not have lists of those to whom the minister of housing has given valid and legal enforceable certificates of possession,” the lawyer wrote.

Thwaites said his law firm had signed retainers with the various provident societies “to represent them legally and to do all things necessary to procure the sale of lands that they occupy from the government of Jamaica”.

No stranger to controversy, Thwaites, who resigned as the member of parliament for Kingston Central in 2002 following allegations of improper use of a title belonging to the Catholic Church, said the fee dispute represents about 5,000 of the more than 30,000 beneficiaries involved.

He told the Observer that his agreement with the provident societies has existed since 1996 and a fee of $8,000 per unit per title has been the charge since then.

Thwaites also accused the corporation of not being able to provide lot numbers for some beneficiaries, and of wanting to change the basis of their dealings, which would involve sending back documents requested.