Gully works under threat
Published:Thursday | August 18, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter
JUST UNDER $1.4 billion has been approved by the National Contracts Commission (NCC) for emergency repair works in the Sandy Gully in the Corporate Area, but the country will have to wait until month end to learn the scope of the work.
Dr Alwin Hales, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Works, said the revised 2011-2012 Budget, which is due to be tabled in Parliament on August 30, will see reductions in allocation for projects being undertaken by the ministry.
"Bear in mind that the first Supplementary Estimates is about to be approved by Parliament so, to the extent that there is funds, then (the work) will be going ahead," Hales told The Gleaner yesterday.
The permanent secretary said there was a likelihood that "all our programmes might be affected by the reduction in the Budget".
Hales added: "I can't tell you the extent to which they will be affected, bearing in mind the PAAC (Public Administration and Appropriations Committee) will consider the Supplementary Estimates and then standing finance committee will also approve them."
Budgeted amount
The Government in April budgeted to spend $793 million, approximately half the amount approved by the NCC, on the Tropical Storm Nicole Drainage Network Rehabilitation Project under which repairs to the Sandy Gully fall.
The Government has been forced to revisit projections in the 2011-2012 Estimates of Expenditure after the International Monetary Fund questioned the credibility of the country's medium-term economic programme.
Daryl Vaz, the minister with responsibility for information, has said the Government would be cutting several previously approved expenditures in a bid to recalibrate the Budget.
The National Works Agency (NWA) last year estimated it would need $4.7 billion to effect the needed repairs to the Sandy Gully which drains a significant portion of the Corporate Area.
Gully damage
Six persons perished when Tropical Storm Nicole dumped rains on the island, leading to the erosion of a section of the gully. A house, perched on the banks, was swallowed by the rushing water. Several sections of the gully's wall have been breached and properties are in danger of falling into it.
Even as the NCC released a list of 11 separate contracts for the rehabilitation works in the gully, the NWA said it could not determine the work's start and scope.
"The Budget (national) is being reworked and so we have to work within the guidelines," Stephen Shaw, manager of communication and customer services at the NWA, told The Gleaner.
The Caribbean Development Bank is providing the funds for the emergency repair works.