By Robert Andre Emmanuel
Following Prime Minister Gaston Browne’s recent public criticism of the Director of Public Works, Aldin Crump, the Public Works Department (PWD) has launched an aggressive road repair campaign, earning praise from the Cabinet during its recent press briefing.
According to Lionel Hurst, Chief of Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office, the efforts of the Public Works Department have not gone unnoticed as monies has reportedly been agreed to be set aside for overtime payments to the workers who engaged in night work to fix roads such as Friar’s Hill Road, Factory Road and the road near YMCA.
“I think the Prime Minister’s remarks were exclusively addressed to the Director of Public Works … who must get his team working and he did,” Hurst said.
“Further what the director has done is to conduct his own public relations rather than rely upon the PR work of the person in the ministry who is responsible,” Hurst told reporters, suggesting that this has helped the department’s image in the public when it comes to road repairs.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet also discussed the number of government-occupied buildings are scheduled to be repaired by the Ministry of Works.
According to Hurst, repairs on the clinics, including those at Cobbs Cross, Liberta, All Saints and Clare Hall should be completed by Christmas.
“Each of repair job cost in excess of somewhere in the region of $200,000 so we’re speaking about almost $1,000,000.
“In some instances, they [the clinics] have to be restocked and re-equipped in order to ensure that they can serve the folks who are going for medical treatment,” he said.
Additionally, the Cabinet also reviewed the other office buildings needing repairs including the NTTC building to serve as the temporary hub for the Ministry of Agriculture and the General Post Office, an office on Friendly Alley to accommodate the Department of Social Transformation.
Hurst revealed that repairs to the Post Office would cost more than $1 million.
Meanwhile, Hurst also remarked on the state of the His Majesty’s Prison in reference to recent comments made by Foreign Affairs Minister Chet Greene on the country’s human rights records.
The Chief of Staff suggested that while the government has plans to renovate the facility, the challenge would be finding the fiscal space to finance the project.
“We have identified the land where the prison could be placed and also had some architectural renderings of what it might look like, but financing that is really very difficult at this time,” he said.
This followed his earlier remark in response to lack of proper toilet facilities for inmates at HMP, which was: “The difficulty we have is that the measurement of what is acceptable for our confinement is being judged primarily by people who live rather comfortable lives, and they, of course, think that running water and toilets should be available to each and every prison.
“The problem we have with that is the working poor in Antigua and Barbuda may not have access to many of these comforts and we think that it is very unfair in a way to have those who have offended society to live at a more comfortable level than those people who go to work every day and try their very best to lift themselves out of poverty.”
