The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

THE government will have to spend upwards of half a million dollars to complete and “correct” renovations on a government building off John F Kennedy Drive that is planned to become the future home of the Attorney General’s Office.

Speaking outside Cabinet yesterday morning, Labour and National Insurance Minister Shane Gibson said a report detailing the condition of the building and its previous renovation under the prior Ingraham administration will become public in a matter of weeks.

“That report is actually completed. We have it in our possession and it’s even much worse than we thought it was, initially,” Mr Gibson said. “We’re in the process now, we’ve already gone out to tender to select the electrical contractor to complete the work, and it is a significant amount of money to complete it.

“I think we have to make some minor, minor changes to the floor plan and major work to the electrical and so hopefully, we estimated it’ll take probably about two months to complete the electrical work – that’s how bad it is.”

Bids for the project should be in by early next week, he said. When asked how much it will cost to renovate the building, Mr Gibson said: “I’m not sure, but I believe – if my memory serves me correct – to complete it, to correct all the defective work that the previous contractor did, I think it’s somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000.”

The minister said the government is “trying to move as quickly as we could” to transfer the Attorney General’s Office from its present location in the Post Office building on East Hill Street to the John F Kennedy Drive building. “In upcoming weeks” the report will be disclosed and tabled in Parliament, Mr Gibson said, adding that he has been in possession of the report for nearly two weeks. He said he has passed it on to Works Minister Philip “Brave” Davis.

The Ingraham administration had spent millions on the building which was intended to become the new location for the Bahamas Mortgage Corporation, and then the Ministry of Tourism.

Also on the table, Mr Gibson said, the government is “in the process of getting a scope of work prepared” for the Sandilands Adolescent Centre, which he said is “also under a deplorable electrical state.”