For­mer en­er­gy min­is­ter Stu­art Young is call­ing for a crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) af­ter the dis­clo­sure of a $3.4 bil­lion list of hous­ing con­tracts he de­scribes as a “car­tel-type” abuse of pub­lic funds.

Speak­ing at the Op­po­si­tion’s week­ly me­dia con­fer­ence yes­ter­day, Young al­leged that the state hous­ing au­thor­i­ty used se­lec­tive ten­der­ing to by­pass trans­paren­cy and di­rect con­tracts to a hand-picked group of con­trac­tors.

Se­lec­tive ten­der­ing in­volves invit­ing bids from a pre-ap­proved list rather than through open pub­lic com­pe­ti­tion.