MANDEVILLE, Manchester — A member of the embattled National Housing Trust (NHT) board last week defended its controversial $180-million purchase of the Outameni tourist attraction and dismissed what he said were claims of mismanagement.

“People are saying that the NHT mismanaged the whole thing; NHT did not mismanage. The NHT is a very well-oiled organisation that has management expertise of the very highest quality,” said O’Neil Grant, who is also president of the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA).

Grant was addressing a Civil Service Week Symposium at the Management Institute for National Development (MIND) campus on Perth Road in Mandeville on Wednesday.

He told the audience that while the remit of the NHT is to provide housing solutions, the agency is also focused on community building and as such it ensures that there are other amenities in the housing schemes that are established.

He said that the Orange Valley property, which houses the Outameni Experience, was purchased as part of the Jamaica 50 Legacy Project to preserve part of what is the historical and cultural lineage of the country.

The idea, he said, was that Orange Valley, with its history, could serve in ways such as Emancipation Park and Devon House because “Kingston is not Jamaica”.

Grant said that there are restrictions relating to providing housing at this time but that is not a result of the Orange Valley purchase.

As a stipulation of the International Monetary Fund, he said that the Trust has to make a contribution to the consolidated fund.

“We wanted to spend $33 billion this year. We were told that you can’t spend more than $22 billion because you have to contribute $11 billion to the consolidated fund to help the country,” he said.

Outlining plans for housing solutions in the South/Central region, Grant said that the NHT is looking at more lands in Mandeville and Clarendon.

The JCSA president told the audience that it is “politics time again” and “mileage” will be sought from the public concerns surrounding the purchase.

“…As the public, as taxpayers, you all need to understand and know what is happening outside of the rhetoric,” he said.

Grant said that his defence of the purchase was not motivated by him being a member of the NHT board.

“I am not a part of the board by virtue of any other distinction but by being president of the Jamaica Civil Service Association. The Association… will always be a member of the board of the NHT. There is no reason for the Jamaica Civil Service Association, through its president, to try to seek to defend the [NHT]. If we did anything wrong, of course I would be the first person to admit…,” he said.