KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – The St. Vincent and the Grenadines government says schools on the island will reopen on Monday despite a delay in a loan from Saudi Arabia that was needed to carry out annual repairs.
In addition, the government has stated that building materials sent to Union Island to repair one of the primary schools damaged by Hurricane Beryl “disappeared” less than a day after they arrived.
Deputy Prime Minister Montgomery Daniel told listeners to the state-owned NBC Radio that all basic repairs have been completed and “harder” maintenance would be done when the loan is disbursed.
Work is being done on a school in the capital, Kingstown (CMC Photo)
“Of course, as I indicated, the most specific and the hardest work will be done when the Saudi Arabia funding is available to us, and to have all of his school plants fully upgraded at a later time this year,” he said.
He stated that the Roads, Buildings & General Services Authority (BRAGSA), the state agency responsible for maintaining public infrastructure, subcontracted the work on the school.
He said BRAGSA sent materials for work to be done on August 18, and within 24 hours, “some of the materials disappeared.”
Daniel said BRAGSA had to reorder the materials and send them to Union Island again on August 22, with the contractor continuing to do the work on the project.
Daniel condemned the disappearance of the material, saying, “When these things happen, … it slows the work down and creates problems for all of us.
“It’s unfortunate when you have a civilised society that these things happen. And so, I could only urge our people to let good sense prevail. We, as a people – and that’s why I always reflect on our history, we, as a people, have to fashion our future.
Daniel said he reported the development to the police, “and for them to proceed with their work. I can’t do the police work, so I await the report of the police”.
Daniel said that the Ministry of Finance had secured a loan from Saudi Arabia for school repairs, but the money would not be available later this month.
“But in the budget itself, there was an allocation of two million dollars (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) of local funding, to which every year we do repairs to school plans averaging around four to five million dollars.”
He said the Cabinet later allocated a further $2 million, which BRAGSA used to repair schools.
“However, all of that outstanding work that was identified …which is to be funded by the Saudi Arabia loan, will still be done once the funds come into operation,” Daniel said, adding, “and so, even after school is reopened, BRAGSA still has that contract to do work”.
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