Lennox McCartney, director of the National Insurance Board, which oversaw construction of the building, told The Guardian Monday that the furniture has been ordered from a local furniture store and is scheduled to be in by the end of September or early October.
“I don’t know whether we are on target yet or not. I don’t now this off hand, but that is the scheduled time when the furniture would be installed according to the contract,” he said. The contract to is between the National Insurance Board and Amy International, a local Bahamian firm.
According to Mr. McCartney, everything at the Ministry of Education building is “in place” and completed to accommodate furniture, and as soon as this is done, the building would be occupied.
“Everyone is planning for that time frame, so as soon as it is in, people will be in the building.”
But in addition to the lack of furniture, a source told The Guardian the building is awaiting network cabling and telephone lines. The source also said other government personnel to be relocated to the building included staff from the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, who would be sharing the top floor. The department of education and its various sub-units are expected to occupy the second floor, and the Bank of the Bahamas is said to be located on the ground floor, occupying 5,000 square feet of space,.
The source said the 70,000-square-foot Ministry of Education facility includes three floors of office space, and a separate single-story storage building. The front offices of the building are surrounded with glass, giving the ground floor has a dramatic entrance foyer and grand staircase.
The building can be accessed from the front entrance on Thompson Boulevard or from an entrance near to the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre.
The Ministry of Education building was designed by Arcorp Ltd., with construction commencing in 2000. The project architect, Douglas Smith, was assisted by several private design consultants to carry out electrical, mechanical and systems engineering and quantity-surveying duties.
The general contractor of the building was Carl Treco Construction, with sub-contractors Flameless Electric Co., Smith’s Airconditioning Co., Al’s Plumbing Co. and Caribbean Landscaping Co.
By Tamara McKenzie, The Nassau Guardian
