Patrick Foster
Thursday, December 17, 2009

GOVERNMENT is to replace Earl Samuels as managing director of the National Housing Trust (NHT) next January, in a major shake-up at the island’s premier housing organisation.

Samuels’ contract expires on December 31, and according to NHT Chairman Howard Mitchell it will not be renewed as the organisation is embarking on a new policy direction.

Mitchell said that following recent consultations with Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who has portfolio responsibility for the trust, it was decided to seek new leadership for the NHT.

The NHT’s decision to replace Samuels was made in a press statement after a special board meeting yesterday.

Mitchell, in a subsequent interview with the Observer, said that although Samuels had served the trust with distinction, he did not fit into the new policy direction of the housing organisation.

“I am a firm believer that in the dynamics of life sometimes it takes a new person to move in a new direction,” the NHT chairman said.

According to Mitchell, the NHT has done a wonderful job but it is currently failing 60 per cent of its contributors, thus requiring a change of approach.

“Sixty per cent of contributors cannot afford housing in Jamaica, we will now attempt to address that situation,” Mitchell told the Observer without giving specifics of the policy change.

“We have started but it is not the responsibility of the trust alone,” Mitchell added.

He said that candidates for the position were being processed but no decision has yet been made on Samuels’ replacement.

In the meantime, the NHT chairman said it was necessary that during the process of identifying a successor, “the business of the trust be conducted in the usual competent and professional manner”.

To facilitate this, he said Samuels had agreed to assist in the leadership transition process, which is likely to be completed by the end of January 2010.

Samuels served the NHT since joining the organisation in 1992 as a financial consultant. He was appointed senior director of finance in 1994, and promoted to acting managing director in 1997. In January 1998 Samuels was confirmed in the post of managing director.