WHEN Outameni Experience Chairman Lennie Little-White offered his ailing attraction to the National Housing Trust (NHT) board members on November 7, 2012, everyone present liked the feel-good concept and thought it could be a good legacy project after they had scotched the idea of replicating Emancipation Park in the west, because of costs.

After seeing the valuation, which was put at $311 million, they were ready to vote ‘no’ to Outameni when one member suggested they have a look at the property first. Easton Douglas, the chairman of the board, his Managing Director Cecile Watson, and General Manager Donald Moore were whisked by Jamaica Defence Force helicopter on an aerial tour of the area.

It was a good day to fly, with clear blue skies, but as they praised the skill of the female pilot, none of the three could see the dark clouds which were gathering over the horizon.

Before long, Watson would be out of a job, four members of the board would resign in unconfirmed support of her, the board would come under a firestorm of criticism for deciding to buy the Outameni property for $180 million, and there would be calls for the head of the chairman. And the casualties of what was becoming a ‘war’ being played out in the media and the Parliament over the NHT-Outameni saga had only just begun.

Douglas, a three-time government minister in the People’s National Party (PNP) Administration and an accomplished valuation surveyor, who carries the professional designation FRICS (Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), charted the course for the flight. In Trelawny they were joined by an unnamed person with considerable knowledge of the area.

They hovered over the 9.1-acre Outameni property to view it in the context of other nearby NHT housing developments present or in the making, and within five minutes to half-an-hour’s drive to Orange Grove, the idea being to determine how it fitted in with the notion of comprehensive community development.

These included the 1,000-home Stone Hedge built at a cost of $1 billion; the 709-acre Dry Valley development; the 2,700-acre Harmony Cove across the road from Outameni and jointly owned with the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ); the Silver Sands Estate owned by NHT, DBJ and private interests; and the 30-acre Windsor property.

They also looked at the town of Duncans and surrounding properties such as Samuel Prospect and Scharschmidt Prospect, as well as the cruise ship pier in Falmouth.

Heat in the boardroom

By the time they had returned to the NHT boardroom at Oxford Road, New Kingston, Douglas, it seemed, had been swayed by the sheer beauty of the area; the lush vegetation caressed by a tantalising breeze whipped up by the warm blue waters of the Caribbean Sea he had just flown over. He was a man in love with his country again, and he believed in his heart that this Outameni property had vast potential for a development that would boost the image of the Trust and, in any event, was a nice business deal.

He was later quoted by the Jamaica Observer as saying that by paying $180 million for a property, valued at $311 million by one valuator and another at $250 million, the purchase had made a profit of either $100 million or $131 million the moment the deal was inked. But the atmosphere in the boardroom was not as sanguine and the words being flung across the room would not inspire trust.

The board of the NHT comprised Douglas, Senator Lambert Brown, Robert Buddan, Brenda Cuthbert, Rev Oliver Daley, Percival LaTouche, Helene Davis Whyte, Dr Davidson Daway, Senator Kavan Gayle, Vincent Morrison, O’Neil Grant, Norman Horne, Sonia Hyman, Minna Israel, and attorney Deborah Martin.

Some of the board members present had grave concerns about purchasing Outameni at the asking price, while others wanted to go ahead. Again, a decision was put off to await an independent valuation. Norma Breakenridge and Associates, chartered valuation surveyor and licensed real estate dealer, submitted its valuation for $280 million dated February 22, 2013.

Upon that, a vote was called. Of the nine members present, four voted for and four against. Douglas, the former housing minister, had the chairman’s casting vote. He voted ‘yes’.

Audley Shaw’s finance ministry agreed to DBJ write-off

But, while the valuation was being undertaken, there was a brisk exchange of correspondence between the Trust and Capital and Credit Merchant Bank (CCMB), which had by now taken over the Outameni property used as collateral for loans. Prior to that, the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) had written off its $80 million in preference shares in the property on a decision taken in March 2011 under the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) administration, but not implemented until 2012.

NHT and CCMB agreed on a negotiated purchase price of $180 million.

The cheque dated March 15, 2013 was made out to CCMB. By the time that information surfaced in the media it was already too late for Little-White, whose name had been dragged in the mud for allegedly receiving a “bailout” from the Government he is said to support. He was later to hit back that “black people deserved write-offs too”.

Right after the sale agreement was signed, negotiations began with Little-White regarding his intellectual property, which is the centrepiece of the Outameni Experience. The talks didn’t seem to be going well. First, the NHT rejected his offer to serve as a consultant. When he submitted a proposal to remove his personal property, that, too, was flatly rejected, with the Trust saying it needed legal advice to determine what were landlord’s fixtures and tenant’s fixtures.

But the NHT bought a standby generator, a fuel tank, an automatic transfer switch, and office furniture for $2.1 million to keep the property going. Negotiations were ongoing for the intellectual property when the controversy hit The Gleaner news pages on October 30, 2014.

Sending home the managing director

There were early claims that aggrieved or interested parties, some of whose names the Observer cannot yet call, were allegedly responsible for ‘leaking the informatlon’.

There were immediate glances in the direction of Cecile Watson, the third woman head of the NHT who was axed in November 2013 for an unrelated matter. The Observer could not confirm any link between the two. Watson, who was appointed on May 17, 2010 under the previous Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Administration, was accused by the board of allegedly spending $10 million on refurbishing the boardroom and her offices, without approval from the board. Watson insisted that she had approval from key executive officers and the expenditure was justified.

In April 2013, she was sent on leave for the two weeks, ostensibly to allow for an audit of the expenditure. That brought a sharp retort from Opposition housing spokesman Dr Horace Chang, who argued that the matter should have been handled with more tact, considering the position and professional status of the managing director. Chang also called for a full explanation of the reasons for her forced vacation.

On November 4, 2013, Watson was told to pack her bags and go. But when four members of the board resigned in March 2014, more questions were raised about the reasons for Watson’s sacking. Those resigning were Rev Oliver Daley, banker Minna Israel, economist Dr Davidson Daway, and attorney-at-law Deborah Martin. Some sources suggested that the dismissal had to do with her disagreement with the Outameni purchase, but Watson has not yet publicly corroborated the claim.

Observer sources claimed she put up a stout fight for a settlement, as her contract did not expire until 2016. There were suggestions that the board members who resigned had supported her request for such, although at that time no figure was mentioned.

Later, Watson demanded $80 million, which the board rejected, saying her dismissal was for cause. That was revised downward to $40 million and then $25 million, before the board acquiesced and settled with her at $5 million. She collected her cheque about three months later.

If you wait long enough by the river…

Nationwide News reported Watson as posting “a cryptic message” on her Twitter page, saying: “An old man once told me, if you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by,” and two days later: “Me thinks he needs Olivia Pope for this one,” a reference to the main character in the popular American television show, Scandal starring Kerry Washington.

The Gleaner story two years after it all began and duly picked up by other media, unleashed a fierce firestorm against the NHT board. For those not interested in the partisan political barbs being thrown, their concern was that many NHT subscribers could not afford to own a home while the Trust was spending money on a private property.

Trust sources responded that the money did not come out of the housing budget, which was set at $20 billion for this financial year. But the Trust also admitted that the benefits were skewed towards middle-income earners. That was why it had come up with the First Step Housing Programme, a basic shelter with space to expand that sold for about $1.7 million for low-income earners at, ironically, Hampden in Trelawny, the first of more to come.

Churches hit

When the controversy refused to die, Opposition Leader Andrew Holness raised questions of Prime Minister Simpson Miller in Parliament. The answers set off a new round of criticisms, followed this week by the resignation of the latest casualties, two other board members — trade unionists Gayle and Davis-Whyte — both claiming to want to leave the prime minister a free hand to select a new board.

And the controversy continues to hit the fan, touching even the churches.

On Tuesday, four umbrella church groups parted company with three of their members to welcome the resignation of Gayle and Davis-Whyte, charging that the Outameni purchase was “immoral” and showed “poor stewardship of the resources of our people”.

Those signing the press release were: the Jamaica Council of Churches, the Jamaica Evangelical Alliance, the Jamaica Association of Full Gospel Churches; and the Independent Churches of Jamaica.

For their part, the Church of God, the Adventists and the Pentecostals opted out, saying the matter was too politicised.