The Minister for Community Services, Youth, Sports, and Gender Affairs, Mr. Frank McField has over the past few weeks made public statements that suggest the Cayman Contractors Association are against the provision of Affordable Housing for the people of the Cayman Islands.
These statements have been made in the local newspapers, on his television programme and at several public meetings, which were televised. We wish to make it abundantly clear that we fully support the Affordable Housing Initiative and all of the social advantages that it provides to this country and especially the Caymanians who ultimately benefit by owning their own home.
Mr. McField has for some reason missed the point of our criticism: it is not the principle of affordable housing; it is the process by which he has undertaken to provide it.
The first phase of the project was mismanaged, unplanned and undertaken by persons with no experience in construction in the Cayman Islands. Mr. McField would have you believe that we showed no interest in this project. This is completely false, on many occasions our members offered to assist with this project only to have our requests totally ignored.
It has been several weeks since we wrote our last letter requesting answers to many of the questions this project has raised. To date we have not received the answers to these questions and would be pleased to receive some response. The questions were as follows:-
Has the NHCDT already received from Staunch Construction an advance proposal for the future works contemplated by Dr McField? If so has a contract been awarded to Staunch Construction?
What is the history and track record for performance of Staunch Construction?
Is Staunch Construction a Cayman Islands Company?
Who are the directors and share holders of Staunch Construction?
What if any expertise and experience in the field of low income housing construction do the directors and share holders of Staunch Construction have?
In addition we would also like answers to the following questions:-
Were the houses and materials stored for the remaining 68 homes not constructed prior to Hurricane Ivan insured?
How much of this material remains undamaged?
Why has the emphasis of the NHCDT changed from single family dwellings to three storey apartment blocks?
Are the local banks providing the financing for the project fully satisfied with the performance of the NHCDT and the administration of Phase One?
Are these banks willing to provide financing for Phase Two?
What are the true and actual costs to date of this project?
The members of the CCA do not wish to have this project given to us; we only want a fair opportunity to show the Government that we can provide affordable housing using local resources at a reasonable price. Is this an unreasonable request?
Why have these questions gone unanswered? If there is nothing to hide, why has the Government not been forthcoming with the answers? Don’t Caymanian’s deserve to know the truth?
The Cayman Contractors Association
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