The Tribune

By Rashad Rolle

THE multi-million dollar project to renovate the Stephen Dillet Primary School this summer began without ministerial approval under the former Christie administration, Works Minister Desmond Bannister said yesterday.

He said the Minnis administration brought the matter to Cabinet when it realised this and held accountable the public servants responsible for overstepping their boundaries in the matter.

However, in a statement to The Tribune last night, Official Opposition Leader Philip “Brave” Davis rejected his assertions as “false.”

The back-and-forth is the latest development in the controversy after former Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) Chairman Bradley Roberts claimed Sunday the contract to renovate the school was awarded to Mal Jack Construction without a proper public tendering process. The Free National Movement (FNM), in the lead-up to the May general election and since then, has vowed to be transparent about contract awards and has committed to ensuring tendering process takes place for them.

Mr Roberts, who served as minister of works and utilities in the first Christie administration, claimed Mal Jack Construction should not have received the contract because it had been blacklisted by the Ministry of Works.

Because Cabinet is responsible for approving contracts worth more than $250,000, critics clamored for answers after Mr Bannister told reporters Tuesday the project was not subject to a proper public tendering process.

Mr Roberts released a statement yesterday responding to such remarks.

“A $4 million non-competitive contract requires the approval of Cabinet,” he said.

“As a former Cabinet minister who speaks from experience, no public servant has the audacity to issue a $4 million negotiated contract without the knowledge of the minister; the public service simply does not operate in that manner. Desmond Bannister is clearly misleading the public and breaching the public trust. He kept the public in the dark about this contract and when confronted with the corrupt facts about the same, he conspires to mislead the public by sweeping this entire sordid and scandalous affair under the proverbial carpet; he must not and will not be allowed to get away with it.”

Mr Roberts could not be reached yesterday to respond to Mr Bannister’s new revelation that work began on the primary school under the previous administration.

However, Opposition Leader Phillip “Brave” Davis, the minister of works under the former Christie administration, rejected the charge in a statement to The Tribune.

“We contest the minister’s assertions,” he said. “We reject them as false. A detailed response will come from the Leader of Opposition’s office upon my return to the country. We know that Mal Jack Construction was not hired by the PLP government but under the FNM to do the work at Stephen Dillette. Under the PLP administration no contract would have been issued to Mal Jack given the adverse reports from the Ministry of Works based on previously performed work by Mal Jack in the Ministry’s behalf. We also know that this project was inspected regularly by the Prime Minister himself. So it is the Minister’s own administration that must answer for what has happened.”

Asked outside the House of Assembly yesterday about the project and concerns surrounding it, Mr Bannister told The Tribune: “It’s a project where somebody exceeded his boundaries and the project actually physically started, planned and started without ministerial authority. When that happened, the minister had to act and Cabinet had to act and in those circumstances, we could not leave the school and the children in limbo.”

Asked when the project started, he said: “They started it under the PLP regime. (It) started when the PLP was in power. They obviously were working on it and we were not aware of it. We came to power and met all of this going on and we had to deal with the individuals who were involved.”

Asked why he took responsibility for the problem in an interview with reporters Tuesday even though he says work began on it under the previous administration, he said: “Because whatever happens in my ministry I take responsibility for. Ask Bradley Roberts if he did that once when he was a minister.”

Mr Bannister declined to say what consequences came to those who he said exceeded their boundaries in the matter.

“No I don’t want to do that,” he said. “But the Cabinet is aware and the Prime Minister is aware and we’ve had to do what we had to do.”

The renovation of the Stephen Dillet Primary School is said to have cost the government about $4 million.