The National Housing Trust (NHT) has defended the inclusion of a secrecy clause during its settlement with private developers, Dexim Holdings, stating that the clause was to comply with court rules on mediation.

The NHT took the company to court after Dexim failed to hand over 200 housing units in the Out Of The Blue housing development in Discovery Bay, St. Ann. Following a court order, the parties agreed to end their contractual agreement, and for Dexim to refund the $650 million down payment the NHT had made, with an additional $20 million. However, the terms of the settlement were kept confidential.

This was met with mounting criticisms from Opposition Leader Mark Golding, who chastised the government for allowing the NHT to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the private developer, which prevents it from telling taxpayers about the settlement. He stressed that taxpayers had a right to know about the developments of the case.

In a statement issued by the Trust, in response to the backlash, it said that confidentiality is consistent with the process of mediation and is a requirement of the rules of court.

“The rules of court require that what takes place at mediation and documents prepared for or in the course of mediation are kept confidential, and not disclosed in any other context except as allowed by those same rules. The non-disclosure and confidentiality provision in the settlement agreement is consistent with those requirements from the rules of court,” the NHT wrote.

“This does not mean that the terms of the settlement agreement would be, or were intended to be, unavailable for viewing by contributors or members of the public. After the settlement agreement was signed by the parties, the agreement was annexed to the Consent Order. Orders of the Court can be accessed at the Supreme Court. This facilitates the NHT’s ability to enforce the terms of the agreement on application in Court, if necessary,” the Trust continued.

The NHT further sought to reassure the public that its funds are secure and are being recovered, stressing that no funds will be lost.

There have been multiple reports of escalating tensions between the NHT and some of its contractors under the entity’s Guaranteed Purchase Programme (GPP).

Reports are that Dexim Holding was contracted to build 200 houses for the NHT at an initial price of J$12.5 million each by January 2021. However, the company faced challenges completing the project due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The deadline was subsequently pushed to August 2022.

However, the NHT claimed in its suite that Dexim Holding failed to deliver any of the units and instead placed the lots assigned to the Trust on the open market priced at J$18.5 million per unit.

Under the GPP, the NHT agrees to purchase a specific number of housing units built by real estate developers on their own land for onward sale to NHT contributors.