Contractors engaged in the government’s hurricane restoration programme in Grand Bahama are angry because they have been instructed to stop work, Lucaya MP Neko Grant claimed in the House of Assembly yesterday.
Mr. Grant said the contractors are “concerned and distressed” and want to know why they have been asked to stop the work they were contracted to carry out.
“They have been told that there has been a change in the minister responsible for housing; others have been told that the money has run out. I believe the latter is correct,” said the FNM MP.
Jerome Godfrey, Grand Bahama NEMA coordinator in the Ministry of Housing, confirmed that there has been a temporary suspension of restoration efforts.
“We have asked contractors to suspend work for a very short and temporary period.
It makes no sense to ask them to proceed and do the work unless I have a budget that is in place already,” Mr. Godfrey told The Bahama Journal yesterday, noting that some contractors are proceeding with repairs, “knowing that their payment will come in due course.”
Contractors were hired to work on outstanding repairs to housing units damaged during Hurricane Wilma.
Mr. Godfrey said the suspension had nothing to do with the change in ministers.
My minister [Neville Wisdom] is anxious to have this whole matter completed, so the transition made very little difference,” he said.
Hurricane Wilma destroyed some 800 houses on the southern western coastline of Grand Bahama and caused damage to hundreds of others, according to government officials.
Bradford Wildgoose of the Ministry of Works – responsible for the assignment of contractors for the island-wide cleanup restoration programme after Hurricane Wilma – said contractors are no longer needed.
“We had contracted a number of contractors to assist in the cleanup efforts but we no longer needed the number of contractors we had originally assigned. To bring closure, we consolidated the last portion of the cleanup effort and submitted a proposal toward that end,” said Mr. Wildgoose.
He said the department is still waiting for a response from the central government on that proposal.
According to Neko Grant, the contractors in Grand Bahama are asking for a proper account of the money allocated for hurricane relief and hurricane relief donations.
“We have asked over and repeatedly for the proper accounting of the hurricane relief donations and contributions by the private sector, as well as the government input into the expenditure for hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004,” he said.
According to Prime Minister Perry Christie, the triple hurricanes have strained the resources of the country.
Prime Minister Christie said the storms have cost the country – in unscheduled spending – $18 million in the aftermath of hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004 and about $14 million in personal repair and reconstruction of houses.
By: Daphne McIntosh, The Bahama Journal
