The National Housing Trust (NHT) is to provide the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) of Parliament with clarification on financial data it has submitted to the committee.

This followed a number of questions raised by the committee at Wednesday’s meeting at Gordon House, after the Trust failed to fully explain discrepancies in its data.

Committee chair Ed Bartlett said that included in the information needed by the committee will be details on the amount of funds it holds in its foreign exchange accounts, which is suspected of making massive gains while the Jamaican dollar devalued over the past six months.

“You need to give us the updated information that you have on your financials,” Bartlett reminded NHT Senior General Manager for Finance Martin Miller.

The PAAC noted that financial data the NHT submitted showed that its performance between April and July this year was generally good, with several indices exceeding targets, while others were roughly in line, and a few were running below target.

The data showed “total assets” exceeding budget targets at the end of July amounting to $212.7 billion, relative to the $210.3 billion which was targeted. This was largely reflected in a 31 per cent increase in cash and investments to $20 million compared to the $13.8 billion budgeted. Total operating income of $8.4 billion also exceeded the budget target of $7.4 billion, resulting in a net surplus of $6.6 billion.

The committee said that it was important to note, however, that the NHT was projecting a decline in operating income, net surplus, loan repayments, and contribution collections towards the end of the fiscal year in March 2015.

The PAAC says it needs to find out why different figures were provided for both actual and targeted cash and investments. The numbers given were $20 billion for actual and $13.8 billion for targeted cash and investments in one table, and in another table they were stated as $20.5 billion and $14.95 billion, respectively.

The Trust has agreed to provide information to clarify the issue.

The committee said it also wanted to know what accounted for the large increase in cash and investments compared to the budgeted targets, and whether it was due to the Trust’s gains from holding foreign currency while the Jamaican dollar depreciated.

The PAAC said that, although the NHT’s cash flow improved from the -$3.2 billion recorded when the agency last appeared before the committee six months ago, its cash flow still seems tight with outflows of $14.117 billion exceeding inflows of $14.004 billion.

The PAAC said that it was also concerned that last week the Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) had reported that it needed $150 million to complete certain housing schemes, including some that were 95 per cent complete, with low-income depositors waiting for the units, but the NHT turned down the request.

The PAAC said that, notwithstanding the moderately tight cash flow situation within the Trust, in furtherance of the principle of “joined-up” government, the NHT could have loaned the HAJ the money from its cash balances.