THE NEWLY-established Project Implementation Unit (PIU) in the Ministry of Environment and Housing is taking steps to collect the more than $64 million in mortgage payments owed by delinquent home owners.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Minnette Mitchell, told Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday that the Unit had been given five years to clear the backlog from owners in about 500 schemes. During that time, decisions such as what portion of the arrears, if any, to be written off would be taken.

Auditor General Adrian Strachan had indicated in his report on the Ministry that the collecting agencies, Caribbean Housing Finance Corporation and the City of Kingston Co-operative Credit Union, had difficulty collecting from as far back as 1997.

He also said he was "unable to ascertain the state of delinquency on those accounts for which the Ministry does the collection as the records were in serious arrears".

Mrs Mitchell said the problem existed primarily with older schemes but said the PIU was in the process of taking charge of the schemes with a view to "bringing them up to scratch so the Ministry could divest itself of the responsibility".

She said the PIU had already gathered information relating to mortgages on 26,000 accounts. And although admitting the Ministry was not aware of the full extent of the problem, the Permanent Secretary said the pace of the work should increase when the Unit becomes fully staffed and operational by April 1, 2000.

She said some progress had been made in two of the larger schemes where arrears had been significantly reduced.

PAC member Fitz Jackson however was apparently not convinced about the Ministry's latest initiative, pointing out the arrears had been on the books for two years. He noted that despite previous assurances that the matter was being dealt with, nothing had really happened.

"We have to decide what we have to write off and where we go from here," he said.