KINGSTON, Jamaica- Government Senator Abka Fitz-Henley has chided Opposition spokesman on housing Floyd Morris for calling a media conference earlier this week and demanding the resignation of National Housing Trust (NHT) Managing Director Martin Miller, on what, Fitz-Henley says, appears to be spurious grounds.

Fitz-Henley was making his presentation at the closing of the State of the Nation Debate in the Upper House on Friday.

“On the matter of the NHT, this week it came to my attention that the Opposition spokesman, our colleague Senator Floyd Morris, called a media conference and, supported by his colleagues in the PNP, demanded the resignation of a senior officer of the NHT concerning arrangements made with a holding company after a project did not materialise as intended. Allegations were made concerning the existence of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) and suggestions that the arrangement arrived at in lieu of the project not materialising put contributors of the NHT at a loss.” Senator Fitz-Henley commented.

He cited details of a stout defence offered by legal representatives for the NHT surrounding the deal as evidence that Morris was off the mark.

The issue concerns a two-year guaranteed purchase agreement the NHT signed with Dexim Holdings in 2019 for the developer to provide 200 houses through its Out of the Blue development in Discovery Bay, St Ann, at a cost of $2.5 billion, with the trust committing to buy the houses at $12.5 million per unit. However, the project never got off the ground.

READ: Opposition wants answers about NHT’s deal with Dexim

In response to the Opposition’s media conference, the NHT representatives asserted that a NDA did not govern the agreement with Dexim Holdings and reiterated that contributors of the trust will not be put at a loss due to the aborted deal.

“It has since emerged that those allegations by Senator Morris are false,” Fitz-Henley said. They don’t have a credible foundation and in fact the information that has emerged as true is that details of the arrangement were placed in a public document and that an additional $20-million were recouped.”

“In some jurisdictions the Opposition spokesman would have been called upon to step down for misleading the public. That would not be an inappropriate step for him to take, but seeing that he may cite exuberance as an excuse, seeing that he is new to the post, I think at minimum Senator Morris should apologise for what has emerged as him misleading the country and impugning the reputation of the hard-working custodians of the National Housing Trust,” Senator Fitz-Henley commented.