The Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) is insisting that the board of the National Housing Trust should be fired over its controversial decision to approve the purchase of the beleaguered Outameni Experience attraction.

General Secretary of the JLP, Dr Horace Chang, maintained that Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller must dismiss the NHT board of the NHT, which spent J$180 million to purchase the loss-making Outameni tourist attraction in Trelawny.

Pointing to calls from the private sector, church and civil society for an investigation into the purchase, Chang, in a statement today, said there is national consensus that the board needs reformation and a change of directors.

He added that Simpson Miller's recent statements in parliament on the matter and her subsequent inaction has damaged the confidence that Jamaicans have in the NHT.

The JLP general secretary argued that the NHT is not a political institution and is there solely to meet the needs of contributors, who are mandated by law to pay over a portion of their earnings to fund the agency. He said the NHT is being treated as a "pork barrel cash pot" and that the prime minister should remove political loyalists from the board and appoint independent directors.

The JLP has said it will be mounting a legal challenge against the NHT over the purchase of the property.

However, responding to the JLP's threat in today's Sunday Gleaner, Easton Douglas, chairman of the NHT, has said he welcomes the suit and said a challenge will establish legal precedence for the NHT's actions.

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