00:00Minister Philip Edward Alexander is doubling down on his defense of the government's housing program,
00:06describing the opposition's allegations of corruption as baseless.
00:11The first thing that needs to be debunked here is this mad call for a criminal investigation.
00:16Any two-by-four lawyer working out at a law school today will tell you,
00:19we need an actual crime to take place and evidence of a crime to take to the police to say,
00:23this is what we want the investigation.
00:25He says the process remains within the law, pointing to procurement rules that allow time for contract review.
00:33Some contracts have been granted through the procurement legislation that requires a stand-down period
00:40so that you can investigate all of the contracts to make sure everything is above both.
00:46So that's where we're at.
00:47Commissioner Robertson-Ragey saying that the 10 days of the stand-down is too short is disingenuous
00:52because 10 days were standard practice under her.
00:54On the issue of financing, Alexander pushed back against claims the state is funding the program.
01:01The issue of the $3.4 billion, billion dollars, not one of those billions is coming from the Treasury.
01:11In fact, not one cent.
01:13Under this government, the contractors who are awarded contracts are financing the development of the projects.
01:21He adds that private financial institutions, not government, will handle mortgages.
01:28The contractors are, and the government is not financing the mortgages.
01:32The mortgage finance companies are, like TTMF and the public bank and Royal Bank and First Citizens Bank and GMMB.
01:38So all of it is nonsense.
01:40All, all of everything that the PNM and the trolls are saying.
01:44The minister also took aim at the former administration, accusing it of failing to adequately address housing demand.
01:51The PNM fooled people, 215,000 people on our list trying to get houses.
01:56And they built 4,700 houses for their friends, family and finances to benefit from.
02:01Under the PNM, they built houses in excess of a million dollars.
02:05For who?
02:06The purpose of the housing development corporations is to make housing available to people who can't afford a million dollar
02:11house.
02:11The opposition has maintained that the public deserves greater clarity on how these contracts are being awarded.
02:19Ravishita Wari Rupnarain, TV6 News.
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