An ‘Out-a-Meni’ Experience Indeed

After hearing news about the NHT’s acquisition of the Outameni Experience, I’m quite appalled at the Portia Simpson-Miller led administration. Do these people (charged with the responsibility of governing the country) really stop and analyze situations before making decisions? I guess not or else taxpayers money would not be spent on purchasing an ‘attraction’ in the most remote part of Jamaica. Thanks to the annual Jazz & Blues festival that brings life to Falmouth, Trelawny once per year. Besides that, Falmouth is a boring town which is only used as a passageway to the second city, St. James.

Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller prides herself on being a ‘Savior’ for the poor but I’m yet to see how the poor is being ‘saved’ from the pangs of Jamaica’s economic depression. They continue to spend money foolishly and in areas that are of no benefit to the poor. When will it end?

The National Housing Trust (NHT) which was established by Michael Manley is intended to provide homes primarily for individuals on the lower rung of society’s social ladder. This is to be funded via the collection of taxes. It is quite unfortunate that our poor people ‘Savior’ was put in charge. Within the past three years since her party was elected and she took the reins of Government, she has made at least two major blunders where the NHT is concerned; reducing the institution’s ability to carry out its core function.

We can vividly recall in 2013 when the Government expropriated $44b from the NHT to meet IMF requirements. With much controversy surrounding this saga, one would think the PNP would not have done something as ludicrous as this again. Fast forward to October/November 2014, they’ve once again dabbled with taxpayers money to purchase a failed tourist attraction.

In light of this, poor people were given the bitter end of the stick; after many years of making contributions to the NHT they’ve been deprived of homes and were forced to watch the institution giving $44b to repay debt that the government incurred. Unfair, isn’t it? Why should we be contributing to an organization that is not fulfilling its purpose?

I’m baffled by the purchase of the property that houses the Outameni Experience. How is it that the NHT is unable to build houses yet they’ve invested $180m in a failed entertainment property? I’m also wondering how is it that the 10 acres of land which the attraction sits on is able to fetch such a high market value when its located in the most remote part of Trelawny? Frankly, the business was placed on auction because it wasn’t securing any profit. Had the attraction being profitable, the Government would not have been given the opportunity to buy it.

From my understanding of business processes, before purchasing an asset (which in this case is a failed business) investors conduct in depth research to analyze the pros and cons of acquisition. Provided they have the managerial expertise to run the failed business, test projections are carried out before purchasing. From my knowledge, the NHT has no experience in managing entertainment facilities and neither does it have the depth of investment experience to make the assessment. Against this background, the NHT will come under severe backlash in their efforts to convince the average Jamaican that this was a wise purchase.

Keeping in mind the NHT’s charter mandate ” Our aim is to detail our administrative accountability, providing you with transparency and access to information all in a very warm and friendly manner” let’s see how ‘accountable’ the NHT’s board of governors are in providing the public with ‘information’ on this $180m purchase. Already, some have defaulted into silence mode and are hiding from the public. But, I do hope the Trust’s responses will be very transparent and delivered in a timely and “very warm and friendly manner”.

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