Staff fired over corruption, likely to be charged – housing ministers

…persons urged to report corrupt acts with “solid” evidence

A female staff at the Housing and Water Ministry has been terminated and is expected to be charged as the ministry works on rooting out corruption within.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Minister within the Housing Ministry, Susan Rodrigues, disclosed that at least one employee has been fired after being caught soliciting money in order to fast tracking house lot applications.
“We were able to get evidence on one employee…she was arrested, she was questioned and, I believe, put on bail. The last I know is that the file is with the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions). So, I assume the police are awaiting the return of that file before charging her. But from our side, we’ve taken definitive action and she has been terminated,” Rodrigues stated.
Back in November, the Minister within the Housing Ministry had cause to lashed out after “an avalanche of allegations leveled against employees” on social media had “compromised months of tedious investigative work.”
At the time, the social media post had linked a male staff from the minister’s secretariat to the alleged corruption. But in a November 24, 2023 statement, Rodrigues had noted that there was no “shred of evidence” against that male staff, who had first brought the matter to her attention and was working along with the police to uncover solid evidence against other staff members and outsiders who were suspected of conducting illegal transactions. She noted his efforts have led to the arrest of several persons and there could have potentially been more arrests had the probe not been compromised.
Questioned during Wednesday’s press conference about her defending the employee, the Minister said “I merely presented the facts. That employee was the employee that was approached by the other employee, who was subsequently arrested. So, he facilitated the investigation with the police when she approached him to set up a scheme to help her to get house lots to allocate other people. He reported the matter to me [and] I advised him to report it immediately to the police. We called in the police; we give all the information to the police and the sting was set up.”
In addition to the corrupt staff, the minister also disclosed that one of the persons who paid the bribe to fast track their land application was also arrested during the police operation.
Nevertheless, as the Ministry work on rooting out corruption within, she implored with members of the public to provide credible evidence against staff so that definitive actions can be taken against them.
“There were a number of allegations levelled against several staff members but you would appreciate that we cannot take definitive actions based on allegations. Obviously, we would examine these individuals more closely. They were engagements with them and they were interviewed in house to find out if they were willing to offer any explanations as to why these allegations were being made against them. But obviously, if you don’t have proof of any corrupt activities, there is no possibility for us to just terminate somebody based on just allegations… and that is why we keep pleading with members of the public to please come forward with any solid information that you have or evidence that you have of any staff member of anyone claiming to be able to get an allocation for you in exchange for money,” the minister posited.
In the same breath, however, Rodrigues noted that persons have to also be wary of those who are complaining about the corruption in the system since they too are part of the problem.
“Many of those who make complaints or allegations on social media are people who have given someone – a middle man or third party – money in exchange for land and have not gotten it because the person they paid does not have the authority to allocate them lands… There is no need for people to pay bribes for house lots,” she contended.
In fact, Housing Minister Collin Croal, who was also at the ministry’s closing press conference for 2023 on Wednesday, made it clear that low-level employees are not responsible for the issuance of house lots.
He reassured, nonetheless, that the ministry is dealing with corrupt employees whenever complaints are received.
“As we get the complaints, we address them and we deal with them… There have been at least two [other complaints against employees at the ministry] not for the similar allocation issue but delinquent and for other issues that we have terminated. For example, we had one Enforcement staff who would have misappropriated the use of his firearm and that staff has been dealt with,” the housing minister stated.
Croal went onto outline that a series of steps have been taken by the ministry to reduce middle-man corruption, including pushing for more online transactions. For the past two years, persons have been able to make changes to their personal information and all other enquires online.
Additionally, the ministry has placed two employees in front of its Brickdam Office who take details from persons going there to follow-up on their applications and at the end of every week, this information is then processed. Moreover, he noted that the ministry has completely cut out any third-party involvement in the process.
“If persons are following-up, it has to be the individual [on the application] themselves… But at a minimal, we’ve reduced seeing persons because we want the [online] system to work. And these are some of the additional measures that we have implement,” the housing minister stated. (G8)