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Ethiopia: Houses Agency to Layoff 2,350
Real estate news By Wudineh Zenebe
6 October 2007
A restructuring study underway by the Ministry of Works and Urban Development (MoWUD) and leading officials at the Rented Houses Agency (RHA) is to layoff over 2,350 of the latter's 2,800 employees. The shake-up, which is in the final stages, will squeeze the 33-year-old Agency into a single office under the Ministry. The committee undertaking the study presented their final recommendations to Arkebe Oqubay, state minister of MoWUD, and Enwey Gebremedhin, Agency director under a state ministerial portfolio, last Monday.
One of the three subcommittees studied what the overall restructuring should look like while another dealt with the Agency's plans to set out in real estate development. The third subcommittee deliberated on arrangements by which houses under the Agency should be administered. One of the proposed recommendations of the committee is to outsource security and cleaning works to a private company through contract or give the responsibility to the tenants themselves. If this proposal is approved, around 1,000 janitors and security workers are feared to loose their jobs, sources disclosed.
Outsourcing of housing repair works is also a component and has brought anxiety among the 600 workers that may lose their jobs. The most drastic turnabout follows RHA's two-month old plan to enter real estate ventures after 17 years of absence from this work. The study recommends contractors undertake the ventures. Rental payments by tenants will also be collected through arrangements with a bank if the proposal is given the go-ahead; the 100 current employees undertaking this duty would be laid-off.
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