The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

AGRICULTURE and Marine Resources Minister V Alfred Gray yesterday said he expects construction on all but one of the buildings at the Bahamas Agricultural and Marine Sciences Institute (BAMSI) to be complete before the end of May.

Mr Gray said the only exception to the May completion date would be the fire damaged male dormitory, on which repairs have not yet commenced due to the government planning the construction of “a larger building to house twice as many students” as the original structure.

Mr Gray also said he believes that the plans for the fire damaged dorm are currently out for costing.

The construction/completion of another building, Mr Gray said, is on hold because of a “dispute” between the Ministry of Works and the contractors.

Nonetheless, he told The Tribune that he remains “optimistic” that construction on all of the buildings will be fully complete by September. In January, Mr Gray told The Tribune that BAMSI would be complete by the beginning of the next school year. At the time, he said “all of the kinks” associated with the controversy surrounding BAMSI’s construction and subsequent completion have been “ironed out” and construction should “now be fast-paced to a conclusion in the shortest possible time”.

When contacted for an update yesterday, Mr Gray said construction on the North Andros site is “in full swing to completion”.

“There is one building that is not going on because there is a dispute between the Ministry of Works and the contractors,” he said on Wednesday. “The building that was burnt has not yet started to be rebuilt because the government is still doing a planning of a larger building to house twice as many students as the original building, and I think that is out for costing.”

He added: “Graduation is supposed to take place sometime during the month of May, and we’re hoping that all of the buildings other than that building (the destroyed dorm) will be completed before the end of May.”

Mr Gray went on to express optimism that all construction works on the North Andros site would be completed by September.

“I am optimistic that it will be, because the only building that will be focused upon between now and May when the others are completed will be that burnt building, and that’s the dorm for the male students. And so I’m hoping by September, we will no longer have to provide other accommodations for the male students, but they, like the others, will be accommodated on the site.

“But, you never know what will happen between now and then,” he said yesterday.

BAMSI is a major government initiative established in an effort to reduce the country’s reliance on food imports.

The school opened to students in September 2014 even though the campus was not finished.

The fire damaged dorm, constructed by contractor Audley Hanna of Paradigm Construction, which was set on fire and completely destroyed in January 2015, sparked controversy when Works Minister Philip “Brave” Davis revealed that it was never insured.

Mr Davis had previously said in the House of Assembly that at the time of the fire, the contractor’s all-risk insurance policy had lapsed due to non-payment.

In July 2015, Mr Davis said the destroyed dormitory would not be repaired until all other BAMSI buildings had been completed.

Mr Davis has also said it will cost $5.5m to rebuild the destroyed dorm, which will be reconfigured from single to double occupancy.