Cabinet has approved the project to provide housing support for public officers. The programme will be established as follows: 1. The establishment of housing committees in each Ministry/Department to screen the housing applications of public officers and make recommendations. 2. Financial support to public officers will be given in the form of: soft loan (maximum of $40,000) 3. The Ministry of Finance has been given authorization to continue discussions with financial institutions including NIS, commercial banks and FINCOR to provide financing to support housing for public officers. 4. The sources of funding for housing for public officers will be made available in the form of consortium loan (NIS and commercial banks). 5. Repayment method - All public officers will repay loans with a monthly deduction from salary. 6. The pensionable public officers may use their gratuity as security for the repayment of the soft loan. Other forms of security may be acceptable. The conditions attached to the programme are: a. Beneficiaries under the housing support for public officers would only be persons whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. b. Applications and approved benefits will be subject to site verification. Source: Office of the Prime Minister