Friday, December 30, 2011

Auditor General Micha Lindenstrauss slammed the Housing Ministry on its conduct in "vacate-and-build" projects.

Atias said, "Even in projects marketed to one developer, there is huge bureaucracy for vacate-and-build. It takes 5-6 years for a project to come into effect. Residents incorporate to find a contract; we don’t decide on the contract, because this is people's property… In the final stage, when the contractor is chosen, the residents want to get more. This is a problem for the contractor. They think that they'll make the fortune of their lives from the project.

Atias further added : "It's hard to execute these projects in the periphery. As a result, the Negev and Galilee get screwed ,it's frustrating to see how the wheels of state don’t work. "Vacate-and-build" is a great idea that doesn’t work for solving the problem of old apartments and building affordable housing".