By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

MORE than 1,000 homeowners are still waiting to receive funding approval from the Disaster Reconstruction Authority to continue their post-Dorian home repairs, Minister of State Myles Laroda said yesterday.

Mr Laroda, who has responsibility for the Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA), made the remarks when asked for an update on the agency’s Small Home Repair programme.

He said: “The Small Home Repair in Grand Bahama, we’re at a point now where we have sourced the funds with regards to about 2,600 residents at various stages of the home repairs. That would be from about 2,500 and capped at 10,000 (dollars).

“What we have to do there are about 3,700 people in total so there’s an additional 1,100 people who have applied for assistance. However, the former Cabinet only approved 2,600 so we have to go back to Cabinet for approval for those other, just say under 1,100 people. I expect that to be done pretty shortly. I conveyed that message to both the leader of the opposition and member of Parliament for East Grand Bahama.”

The housing repair programme was launched by the Minnis administration in February 2020 to help residents in Abaco and Grand Bahama repair their storm ravaged homes following the passage of Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

Mr Laroda told parliamentarians earlier this month that more than 3,700 homeowners sought assistance as a result of the relief initiative.

He said 1,200 people in Grand Bahama got assistance at a price tag of $1.5m and $585,000 went to Abaco residents.

“The home repairs, as it started under the previous government, there were homes with various stages of damage and they were supposed to be assessed,” Mr Laroda said yesterday.

“Whether that was done entirely could be debated, but we are where we are where commitments have been made. The contractors would’ve done work. Some of them are at (the) halfway point, some of them are completed so we do owe about just north of $400,000 to those contractors who performed the work. As I said earlier, those (funds) have been sourced so those contractors will be notified shortly when they would receive their funds.”

A forensic audit continues to be underway into the DRA, Mr Laroda also said.