Alexander: Procurement overhaul will speed up housing

Min­is­ter in the Min­istry of Hous­ing Phillip Alexan­der says the re­cent­ly passed leg­is­la­tion that over­hauled the Of­fice of Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion (OPR) will help ac­cel­er­ate hous­ing con­struc­tion across Trinidad and To­ba­go, ar­gu­ing that bu­reau­crat­ic de­lays have long frus­trat­ed ef­forts to ad­dress the na­tion's hous­ing short­age.

Speak­ing dur­ing a vis­it to the Mal­oney Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment, Alexan­der de­fend­ed the pro­cure­ment amend­ments and sug­gest­ed they would re­move ob­sta­cles that pre­vi­ous­ly stalled ma­jor Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) projects.

"The HDC does not have the mon­ey to build 20,000 hous­es, but we have the ca­pac­i­ty to build 20,000 hous­es," Alexan­der said.