The Housing Agency of Jamaica (HAJ) said it has sacked its senior executives, pointing to more than $2 billion in losses at the entity over the past three years and what it described as “significant deficits in the management” of the State-run body that was established to provide low-income housing solutions for Jamaicans.

In a news release, HAJ board chairman Norman Brown announced the separation of the managing director, director of technical services, and the senior managers with responsibility for construction, finance and information, and legal service/company secretary with immediate effect.

“We are very concerned with the financial situation we have found since we took oversight of the agency,” Brown said, adding that the “severe losses” were $608,788,000 for the year 2013/2014; $539,099,000 for 2014/2015; and $848,574,456 projected for 2015/2016.

“The board had no choice but to act,” Brown said. “Immediate action is being taken to review the governance arrangements and project management practices of the HAJ.”

Brown said the board has decided to make some far-reaching reforms at the agency and has appointed Gary Howell, who is currently senior manager for sales and services, as acting managing director in the interim.

He said that Howell has over 20 years’ experience at the HAJ and his expertise and professionalism are well established. “All other vacant positions will be filled by persons already employed at the agency,” Brown said.

Yesterday, in Parliament, Dr Horace Chang, the minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, spoke to the development, saying: “We found too many things that were really questionable.”

According to Chang, the changes made by former Minister of Transport, Works and Housing Dr Omar Davies in 2014 to stem the haemorrhage did not make “a big difference”.

Dr Davies had also announced plans to review the work of the agency in October 2015, suggesting that a major causal factor of the problems facing the HAJ was “undertaking projects with noble social objectives, but which were not financially viable”.

After the sitting of the House, Dr Chang told the Jamaica Observer that he had planned to address the issue in his sectoral debate earlier in the afternoon, but was unable to do so because of time limitations.

He said that he will be holding a press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister today to go further into the issue.

Copies of his sectoral debate speech made available to the press last night, stated that the Government was focusing on a Housing Public Private Partnership (HPPP) Policy, which would provide a framework through which the Government can efficiently undertake its mandate of providing affordable housing solutions for all, especially low- and middle-income individuals.

“Housing PPPs are undertaken under the Housing Act. The amended policy is expected to provide a more efficient framework between the Government and various private developers, resulting in a range of cost-effective housing solutions,” Chang said.

He said that the Government will still examine how it can reorganise the relationship between the various housing institutions, such as the Urban Development Corporation, the National Housing Trust, the Jamaica Mortgage Bank, and the HAJ.