Minister of Labour and National Insurance Shane Gibson said a recently completed report reviewing the renovations carried out on a government building on John F. Kennedy Drive details a number of abuses and shows that the unoccupied facility will require even further repairs.
The Ingraham administration invested millions of dollars to renovate the building, which was slated to become the official home of the Ministry of Tourism last year.
The building is located west of the Ministry of Works. Gibson said the government will have to spend more money for it to be usable.
“The only thing I could tell you about that building is the previous administration and their cohorts have no shame,” he said.
“It is even worse than we thought it was initially. We got the electrical report back from the person who assessed the building and it is really in bad shape.
“A lot of the work that was done was really unnecessary. And so, obviously persons advising whoever was making the decision at the time was giving bad advice and that is why the problem still persists today.”
The building, which is owned by the National Insurance Board (NIB), is reportedly worth more than $20 million.
“When we release the report you will see…The public will see how their funds were being abused at that time,” Gibson said.
Asked when the report will be released, he said, “I couldn’t give that information at this time because there is so much information and so much abuse going on in the system. We’ll release it all in time.”
Gibson said he requested that the Ministry of Works put together a scope of works so that repairs can be carried out.
He said the Office of the Attorney General wants to move into the building. “The AG’s office wants to get out of the Post Office Building like yesterday. They have a lot of issues with
the Post Office[Building],” he said. Former Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said last year that when he took office in 2007, the JFK Drive building was already plagued with issues.
Ingraham said in the House of Assembly, the building, originally intended to house the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation (BMC) and the Department of Housing, had a budget of $5.8 million in 2004 but it inflated to $14.1 million by May 2007.
“During the course of construction of the building, major changes to the project occurred,” he said.
Violations to the original agreement were alleged, he said, and large sums of money were spent in additional work to repair and cover up elements of construction that were considered unsatisfactory. Missing materials and equipment were also noted.
At the time, Ingraham noted that repairs to the building cost “millions upon millions” of dollars.
While issues surrounding the building first came up while the former Christie administration was in office, Gibson asserted that whoever is the last person on record to carry out repairs should take responsibility.
By Krystel Rolle
Guardian Staff Reporter
