The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

WITH little over a month before the start of the 2016-2017 academic year, repairs to schools across the country face major setbacks due to an unexplained halt in submitting the Ministry of Works’ annual “scope of repairs report”.

Although several major contracts have been mobilised, Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald told the press that repairs could very well be continuing up to the September 5 start date for classes – a fact he called disappointing.

“I think it is going to be very close, very, very, very close. And, like I said, it is going to take a co-ordinated effort and again I am not sure what the reason for the delay was at Ministry of Works,” Mr Fitzgerald said.

“For the last four years we have had no challenge and we have been able to open schools relatively smoothly for four years and it is just unfortunate that we are in this position. We will work through it together.”

According to the Marathon MP, operational procedures mandate that the Ministry of Education receive the “scope of repairs report” by May, allowing officials to award contracts by the middle of June.

However, this year, officials were not made informed of the scope of repairs until July.

Mr Fitzgerald contended that his Ministry, in an effort to offset any further delay, was forced to hand out contracts without having a chance to evaluate their need - “to see what was a want as oppose to a need,” he said.

The Tribune understands that education officials are prepared to spend between $9m and $10m on repairs, a price point the Minister himself labelled as “pretty expensive”.

The idea that contracts were awarded prior to scale of works being “evaluated” has left many questions, especially once juxtaposed with the large sum allocated for school repairs.

When pressed for clarification, Mr Fitzgerald said his office was working as quickly as it could to coordinate efforts between the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Finance, all of which are integral in ensuring that repairs are carried out in a manner of best practices.

He said: “We were able to increase the amount of mobilisation this year with the approval of the Ministry of Finance so that we can decrease any further delay. Undoubtedly there will be major works this summer. For the most part you are talking about ripping cabinets, you are talking about re-tiling, you are talking about painting, replacing of roofs and so it is major construction that normally takes four to six weeks with nobody around.

“So we are accessing and meeting every single week and we have been doing so the last two weeks to watch the progress of it and so, it is a bit early now to say what the outcome will be, but we have made significant progress in the last two weeks and we will continue to assess it every week between now and the beginning of school.”

Preceding these various repairs, scores of additional contracts are expected to be awarded for minor repairs which includes painting and landscaping efforts.

Additionally, Education officials carry ​out a range of repairs throughout the school year.

The 2016-2017 academic year would, for the first time ever, have an allocation of $1 million to oversee this level of repairs.

Teachers are expected to report to institutions later this month, with classes officially getting underway on September 5.