One man who faced no prospect of being left out of the new Cabinet is Michael Finnegan. He won by the largest margin of any UDP in his Mesopotamia division, with a margin of greater than 1,200 votes, and now he takes that to the always difficult Ministry of Housing. Difficult because that’s one of the greatest needs in the country - with the least money to pay for all those dream houses. But money or not, Finnegan told us he’ll be doing business differently and that begins with putting a freeze on the Venezuela money.
Michael Finnegan, Minister of Housing
“The first mission was to suspend Friday whatever was going on in connection with the Venezuela money. So that was suspended on Friday. We will call in the auditors to order the Department of Housing immediately. We will do things differently from the way the PUP were doing things. There will have to be a criteria for you to qualify to have a grant. There’s got to be a criteria for you to qualify to have a housing loan. If you are qualified to have a housing loan or a home improvement loan, the Department must first send out an inspector to inspect whatever home improvement you are talking about. Then you must be indigent in order for that program. And if you are and you are qualified, no money will be placed in your hands. The Ministry of Housing will send in its contractor, if the repairs you are talking about is $700 to $1500, the Ministry will directly deal with the matter but the monies will not be placed in your hand.”
Jules Vasquez,
But it can be argued that you are trying to slow the flow, that in fact you are going on mean with the money.
Michael Finnegan,
“I am not behaving mean with the money. There is a right way and a wrong way of doing things. When you are dealing with public funds, you must act responsibly.”
Initial reports suggests that in one month, the outgoing Musa administration spent $15.1 million of the Venezuelan money.
