OPPOSITION legislator Daryl Vaz has asked the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) to support a number of recommendations he has made in relation to the growing controversy over the State-owned National Housing Trust’s (NHT’s) purchase of the Outameni heritage attraction in Trelawny for $180 million.

In a letter to PSOJ President Chris Zacca, Vaz urged the private sector umbrella organisation to take over the lead role in pursuing this matter with the involvement of other private sector, church and civil society organisations.

The West Portland parliamentarian grounded his request on his insistence that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, based on her response to questions tabled in Parliament last Tuesday, was misled by the chairman and board of the NHT.

Simpson Miller had told the House that the NHT did not acquire the “assets, goodwill or brand associated with the Outameni Experience, save and except for the standby generator, a fuel tank and office furniture”. What the NHT bought, she said, was the land.

But her answer ran counter to previous revelations by board members who had said that the purchase was a good deal and that the NHT intended to operate it as an attraction.

Vaz in his letter to Zacca, recommended that:

(1) The existing board be removed and a new board appointed with the requisite competence and integrity.

(2) The new board be directed to appoint a managing director through a competitive process and based on merit.

(3) The NHT Act be amended and that the internal governance procedures be restructured so as to add an absolute level of protection against inappropriate expenditure and deviations from the mandate as strictly interpreted.

(4) All ongoing project planning and negotiations in regard to Outameni be frozen and put the property back on the market for resale in order to recover as much as possible of the funds expended.

(5) The organisational and management changes recommended five years ago by KPMG be implemented.

“If these and other measures, which you may deem necessary, are not urgently commenced, Jamaica and its economic and political image will plunge down a slippery slope that we are all making huge sacrifices to avoid,” Vaz wrote.

“It is with this in mind that we collectively be prepared to take any action deemed necessary, including pursuing legal advice as to pursuing the withholding of any further remittances of NHT deductions and contributions until commitments are given by Government to implement these urgent steps to restore the principle and tenets of transparency, accountability and ultimately good governance,” he said.

“It is clear, based on the interviews, statements and comments made in recent weeks, that the board had acquired, not only the property, but also the Outameni Experience ‘lock, stock and barrel’,” Vaz said.