By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
SEVERAL hundred jobs were created this summer as the government moved to ready schools throughout the country ahead of the new academic year, Minister of Education Jerome Fitzgerald said yesterday.
Mr Fitzgerald said that repairs to schools in New Providence and Grand Bahama are almost complete.
He said: “We have created some 800 jobs over the summer. I cannot begin to tell you the number of contractors who have come to me personally and thanked me for giving them a chance to work for the ministry after they have been denied so many years.
“One contractor stated that his daughter received a partial scholarship to go off to school and he did not know how he was going to find the money to pay the balance. The contract he received allowed him to earn enough money to pay the balance. Another contractor said he was now able to send both of his daughters to private school.
“We understand that there are some persons who are not happy about that because they have been awarded contracts for the past 20 years. We decided that we would turn it around this year and we intend to continue do the same. We at the ministry are extremely proud that we were able to spread the work around and empower many small contractors.”
The minister said $4.5 million would be spent on school repairs throughout the country.
The money will be spent as follows:
• New Providence – $3,200,000
• Grand Bahama – $600,000
• Family Islands – $650,000
The allocation to Grand Bahama was increased by 25 per cent in part due to the poor physical condition of certain schools.
Allocations to Family Islands were also increased to facilitate necessary repairs due to damage caused by Hurricane Irene.
This year, 74 contractors were awarded work.
Of that number, 50 had not received a contract from the government in the past five years and 20 were first-time contractors signed to do government work.
The minister said he has actively inspected the progress of school repairs since they began several weeks ago.
Comments
Required 12 years, 3 months ago
Let me see if I understand this correctly. Jerome Fitzgerald, Minister of Education and as such in charge of the country's government schools, boasts that his ministry spent so much money over the summer that the recipients of these tax dollars can now send their kids to private schools and no longer have to rely on the government ones they just repaired? Got it.
positiveinput 12 years, 3 months ago
Whatever they did with the money is not what the message was. The message was that 800 jobs were created and that individuals whom had no work or present contracts to sustain their families now saw it possible to afford whatever they choose to do legally with their money. You think the workers for Cost Rite only shop at Cost Rite, or Super Value only shop at Super value. Stop being narrow minded. You got that. An individual is not restricted to spend their money to the likeness of you, but I sure hope you settle to obtain all of whatever your job offers only from your place of work.
242 12 years, 3 months ago
Actually they don't but they probably should....think of someone working to pepsi but only is drink coke....you sending a message that I work at Pepsi I have inside information that something so wrong with pepsi soda I refuse to drink it. And if you not even supporting what you work for and the company loses money you will eventually have no where to work
positiveinput 12 years, 3 months ago
You make a good point about the message the employee could be sending but its still up to any individual to spend their income on goods or services as they wish. As it applies to the above topic, the contractors who perfer private school are still basic taxpayers so look at it this way, they're paying twice for their childrens education in a sense. Now with the point you made of the pepsi worker perfering to drink coke, look at a vegetarian working as a butcher. Its just his/her preference.
welly 12 years, 3 months ago
WoW!!! I wonder how much that contractor who could now send his two daughters to private school got paid. it must have been enough to last the three terms because when school opens the contract is up, so that better be enough money to last until next summer. This story is laughable.
welly 12 years, 3 months ago
They create hundreds of jobs every summer on school refurbishing,this is nothing new. And just because these people have not had a so called government contract in a while so they say does not mean that these guys have not had contracts at all. When a statement like the ones from the two so called contractors are made it has to be dissected because these guys weren't just sitting around just waiting for a summer contract to drop in their laps.
JohnBrown 12 years, 3 months ago
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JohnBrown 12 years, 3 months ago
This comment was removed by the site staff for violation of the usage agreement.
BoopaDoop 12 years, 3 months ago
50 contractors are PLP's. 20 have become PLP's. 4 are family, friends or lovers of the PLP.
moncurcool 12 years, 3 months ago
Why do we allow these politicians to parade before us with stupid remarks. No jobs have been created. All that has happened, is as always, because we allow our students to run down the schools each year, the government as they do every year, has to bring in "800" people to work to 2 weeks.
So what happens after the "two weeks". Are the jobs still there. I guess this is a part of the 10,000 jobs they are creating in the first year.
I just despise mindless stupidity on the part of our elected leaders.
concernedcitizen 12 years, 3 months ago
maybe theres a reason those guys didn,t work for 5 years ,they suck ..if your such a crappy contractor you only work when your party is in and only in august ,maybe its time to find other work ,,lmao
concernedcitizen 12 years, 3 months ago
mr fitzgerald ,maybe yourself ,mr sands ,mr finlynson and mr kemp can show us the treasure map to find the city market workers pension
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