KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Godwin Friday has defended the EC$1.5 million (One EC dollar = 0,37 cents) allocated in the national budget for repairs to the official residence of the prime minister, saying the building is a fire hazard.
Wrapping up debate on the EC$1.9 billion Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure, Prime Minister Friday, who led the New Development Party (NDP) to victory in the November 27 general elections last year after nearly 25 years in opposition, said the roof and guardrails pose a danger.
But former prime minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, said that the funds allocated by the government “are going to balloon,” telling legislators, “I’m saying to the people of this country, when I left that house, it was liveable. It needed some repairs, but liveable”.
In 2022, the Gonsalves government had allocated EC$75,000 for “Enhancement of the Prime Minister’s Residence”, the same amount that had been approved a year earlier.
In 2023, it allocated EC$250,000 “to undertake minor works and procurement of furniture, fittings and equipment,” and EC$75,000 for 2024 and EC$65,000 for 2025 were also allocated.
The project was expected to be completed in 2023, with an estimated overall cost of EC$437,661.
Gonsalves also criticised the EC$600,000 allocated for the purchase of motor vehicles for the prime minister, saying the cars will be imported duty-free. Still, if duties were applied, the cost would reach EC$1.3 million.
He said the vehicles he had used, three or four of them, were “perfectly functioning” and “had another couple of years going for them.”
But in his response, Prime Minister Friday said his predecessor was quick to criticise the enhancement of the official residence and the “so-called fleet of vehicles,” insisting that the official residence was in a horrible condition and clearly uninhabitable.
Friday said that a few days after his party won the general election, he went to the Prime Minister’s Residence expecting to make “just some cosmetic” changes, such as “to paint a little bit here and put some curtains and so forth, and change some linen and some upholstery.”
However, on arrival, he saw that “it’s quite clear that the place is not in a state to move in”.
Friday said a “provisional budget” had been allocated for what was expected to be a cosmetic change. Still, when the touring team saw the residents’ conditions, they concluded, “This is not possible.”
He said because of the horrible condition, the state agency BRAGSA was called in to conduct an assessment, and he anticipated it might take two or three months to complete repairs and make the official residence liveable again.
“But then they (BRAGSA) said there are the most serious problems here. I’m hearing now that all the (galvanised) sheeting on the roof has to be replaced because it is corroded, and in some places, it may actually be leaking.
“I heard now as well, the electrical system is a fire hazard, and that the entire electrical system in the residence has to be replaced. I wasn’t expecting that,” Friday told lawmakers, adding that “the rails around the building are rotting and it’s dangerous and it’s urgent that it has to be replaced.”
He said other things can be done, such as upgrading and remodelling, but the decision is not for him to make, noting, “this building is a heritage building.”
“This is something that the country should preserve and be proud of,” Friday said, speaking of the official residence as a national treasure.
Apart from the building that serves as the official residence, Friday mentioned the deplorable condition of a building constructed on the premises during Gonsalves’ tenure, some years ago, for members of the Prime Minister’s Security Detail.
He said national security minister St. Clair Leacock, who visited the police stations across the country following the November election victory, “talked about the conditions under which the police are made or forced to live.” It is the same kind of deplorable condition that exists at the building for police officers at the Official Residence of the Prime Minister.
“They’re sleeping in bunks, four to a room. These are things that need to be changed. I would not be comfortable sleeping in the Prime Minister’s Residence knowing that the people who are supposed to be guarding the prime minister are sleeping in those conditions,” Friday said, adding, “unfortunately, the residence has gotten to a point where it’s going to require much more” than he anticipated.
Friday, who is also the finance minister, explained that because of so little time to prepare the budget, the staff worked overtime, and it was very late when they decided to “put some funds in it,” hoping it would be sufficient to cover the repairs.
“So, they put $1.5 million there. Initially, it was less than that. But I hope that it can be done for that. I hope it can be done for less, because the state that it’s in is going to require quite a lot of work,” he said.
He noted that he is “not the one who is making those decisions”, adding that BRAGSA is in charge of the project.
Friday said that the money being spent on the official residence is not for beautifying it for himself.
“This is ensuring that the building stays erect and that it’s safe,” proposing that in the future, “the repair and the maintenance of that residence, and also of Government House, the residence of the Governor General, that these matters should be dealt with either by some institution, by BRAGSA, or some special unit that says the maintenance and repairs is not up to the residents of the facility.”
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