BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados government has dismissed allegations that it is prepared to relocate the present Government Headquarters south of the capital to make way for a tourism project.
Senior Minister with responsibility for Planning and Infrastructure Dr. William Duguid, in a statement to the media, said, “This could not be further from the truth,” adding that plans for the area included modernizing several buildings and expanding parking facilities.
“The fact is that the Government is looking to develop the site at Bay Street further to improve and modernize the Government offices on that site by adding another two buildings to this facility and making more floor space available for Government offices,” Duguid said.
“This, together with better parking facilities and improved office space for the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of Finance, will not only offer better working conditions for the staff but also reduce the Government’s rental bill, which has been a focus of this Government from the time we came to office in 2018.”
Last Sunday, former prime minister Freundel Stuart, addressing a public meeting of the opposition Democratic Party (DLP), said he would not support any plan to relocate Government Headquarters to make way for tourism development.
Stuart recalled that when he was head of the government, “some people came to Barbados telling me where Government Headquarters is suitable for tourism development and that the Prime Minister’s Office should be moved up to Ilaro Court.
“I said, ‘I don’t have any problem with that suggestion, just come back and tell me when the White House is going to be moved in the United States; come back and tell me when Number 10 Downing Street is going to be moved and when 28 Sussex Drive In Canada will be moved and where’. I haven’t heard from any of them since,” he added.
Stuart, the island’s prime Minister until May 2018, said, “All life in Barbados today is about transactions,” with no concern about the societal impact.
“They do not discuss the social implications of anything happening in Barbados. It is just the bottom line, what the transaction will yield and what it will yield for certain people’s pockets,” he added.
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