Government accused of breaching contract

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The principal of the Ottos Comprehensive School is calling on the Antigua Barbuda Union of Teachers to take the government to task for what he said is a breach of contract.
Foster Roberts told OBSERVER media that the government has a binding arrangement with the union to provide school compounds with round-the-clock security, however he said that some schools continue to be targeted by thieves because there is no security after hours.
“Some pressure has to be brought to bear on the relevant authorities to rectify this situation in schools. It cannot go along where school principals have to be dealing with these kinds of matters. It just does not make any sense,” Roberts said.
The principal’s comments came after the school suffered its third break-in in just four days. Yesterday, it was discovered that the principal’s office, as well as that of the secretary, were broken into  and ransacked.
Two days earlier, the secretary’s office and the school’s cafeteria were targeted. The night before, Wednesday last week, the cafeteria was initially targeted.
“The agreement with the union and the government is for 24-hours security, not seven or eight or 10 hours, it is for 24 hours, so they need to address that urgently. I am calling on the union to address that matter with the government because it is a breach of a contractual arrangement,” he added.
Roberts explained that within the last two months, security personnel from a private company have been assigned to the school during the day until 3 p.m., and there have been instances where the school is looked after until approximately 7 p.m.
However, after that hour, the school is left unattended until the next day.
Roberts added that the school did not suffer break-ins when security personnel were on the job around the clock, apart from reports of praedial larceny at the school’s farm, located at the back of the compound.

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