The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

The MINISTER of State for Finance, Michael Halkitis, said yesterday that the Christie administration was holding to its pledge to provide some compensation for those businesses impacted by the New Providence Road Improvement Project (NPRIP), telling Tribune Business the Government was going to have to find creative solutions given the current fiscal situation.

The Ingraham administration had announced plans to provide assistance to impacted businesses, and had initiated a survey to collect information from them. But Mr Halkitis told Tribune Business that no money had been set aside for this, although the Christie administration to committed to following thorough with a similar pledge.

“We didn’t see any funds allocated for it,” he said. “I know that they had sent some people out to do some interviews and collect some information. There were people who wrote in who were not interviewed. What we undertook to do as well is to compensate people for some of the losses. What we are doing now is compiling all of the complaints, and then we will sit down and see how we will begin to compensate these people.”

Mr Halkitis added: “Compensation doesn’t have to take the form of money. We have to be creative. We are well aware of our current fiscal situation. Right now we are just getting our people to finalise a report to see what the level of submissions are, then we can move forward quickly. It’s a tight situation but we have to be creative.”

Mr Halkitis added that the Government expected to unveil its mortgage relief plan within the next week.

He said: “We are at a stage now where, within the next week to 10 days, we expect to come and unveil the plan.”

The Christie administration’s initial mortgage relief plan to help struggling homeowners sought to strike an agreement with banks and institutional lenders to write off unpaid interest and fees for homeowners facing foreclosure, in return for government guaranteed interest payments for five years. The proposal also includes working with banks and lenders to implement a 120-day moratorium on foreclosures, and extend the loan repayment period under defaulting mortgages.