Survey reveals that public servants are dissatisfied about the Mamara Spring villas in West Guadalcanal
A RESEARCH study to collect more data on Public Service Housing Assistance (PSHA) policy implementation and public servants’ interest in the Mamara project has been carried out.
The report of the study will be presented to the Cabinet any time soon so it could make an informed decision on housing rental issues concerning public servants.
The research study was conducted from September 26 to 30 this year in the form of survey questionnaires distributed to the public servants.
The questionnaire consisted of three sections. The first section provides for collection of relevant personal information.
The second part contains questions related to the Public Service Rental Scheme (PSRS) and the Public Service Housing Assistance policy, whilst the third section covers questions related to the interest of public servants in the Mamara spring villas.
According a copy of the survey obtained by Solomon Star, part 1 consists of four questions, whilst part two consists of 8 questions and the final part, 23 questions.
One interesting question relates to the level of interest in renting to own one of the Mamara villas. The responded was not interested.
Other question asks about the suitability of the location of Mamara in terms of accessing health, education, shops, banks and market. The responded neither agreed nor disagreed.
Another interesting question was about the quality of material of the villas and the respondent was somewhat dissatisfied.
According to a circular issued on 14 September 2021, the Mamara project encourages Public Servants to own homes through a rent to own scheme.
The initiative was already established in December 2021 and endorsed by Cabinet to implement this year but was deferred pending the need for more data to identify and address challenges associated with rental eligibility, affordability, tax and housing market related issues.
The project was completed in 2021 but occupation of the villas was delayed due to the need for more data to gauge public servants’ interest in them,
The Mamara Housing Project consist three types of houses. The table below shows the house types, number of rooms per house type and the cost.
| Type | Number of bedrooms | Value |
| A | 3 bedrooms with self-contained master bedroom | $ 927,675.00 |
| B | 3 bedrooms with shared bathroom | $742,150.00 |
| C | 2 Bedrooms with one bathroom | $556,605.00 |
Minister of Commerce, Industry, Labour and Immigration Frederick Kologeto told Parliament recently that a revised policy on Public Service Rental Scheme in line with the Mamara project was delayed citing there are important issues needed to be addressed relating to new rental scheme.
Kologeto said a taskforce headed by the Ministry of Public Service in collaboration with Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Labour and Immigration, Ministry of Lands and Housing and Ministry of Finance and Treasury was established to oversee the transition of public servant to Mamara estate.
BY CHARLES KADAMANA
