Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
$69M renovated NIS office…Kaieteur News accepts Govt.’s challenge to release detailed costs of three houses
Kaieteur News has accepted a challenge by government to release as early as today cost details of three homes of staffers which were published recently, to highlight the seemingly exorbitant price paid to renovate a Berbice branch of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS).
Government had promised to provide the relevant documents of the controversial $69M office at Corriverton … once the newspaper releases its own information of the houses being compared.
Yesterday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Chairman of the NIS board, Dr. Roger Luncheon, wrote this newspaper again repeating statements that government stands ready to accede to the requests by the newspaper.
Kaieteur News’ Publisher, Glenn Lall, has since said he has the relevant bill of quantities and is prepared to have them available.
Over the weekend, the newspaper raised questions over the costs of the renovated NIS branch, publishing photos of three homes built for its staffers which cost under $7M each.
During his weekly press briefings as Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Luncheon in defending the renovated Corriverton office, accused Kaieteur News of sensationalizing the issue.
The office was commissioned two Mondays ago.
According to Lall yesterday, he has maintained files on the three homes located in Diamond, East Bank Demerara.
“We stand by our contentions that each of the three homes is under $7M.”
The newspaper official insisted that none of the three homes was renovated, but built from scratch from “swamplands”.
“This included landfilling and everything else. The homes are at least four feet above the road level. Yes, we are ready to release the information and do look forward to the same from government and NIS.”
Another staff member said his home was built for under $8.5M and this included cost of land, construction, furniture, painting, grilling, landfilling, guttering, fencing and wiring.
Lall also asked for possible images or photographs of what the NIS building looked like before it was renovated.
According to Dr. Luncheon yesterday in his letter to Kaieteur News challenging the newspaper, NIS had awarded a tender through a public process.
NIS, he said, “is prepared to provide and have Kaieteur News publish the Bid documents, Bills of Quantities for the Corriverton Local Office tender and expects the same for the three (3) buildings Kaieteur News mentioned.”
Luncheon went further.
“For the record, the reconstruction included office space for twenty staff members offering the identical range of service that are currently providing (sic) at headquarters, comprehensive site development, clean power, back-up power, grid connection and facilities for security and public convenience and seating.”
During his press briefing on Wednesday, Dr. Luncheon was clear on government’s stance on the release of information of the NIS branch.
“How can this conceivably be compared with a seven-million-dollar house? The editor presumably might be wrong, but I don’t know whose seven-million-dollar construction the NIS office was compared with, but I found it as an insult to the readers’ intelligence, and I made the offer… we provide the bid documents, the bill of quantities and ask Kaieteur News if they can do the same for their $7M construction that they sought to compare with the $69M construction of the NIS local office.”
Lall on Wednesday had expressed surprise at Luncheon’s response.
He pointed out that when he had met the NIS Chairman on Monday at the High Court, the government official said that he would have provided the bill of quantities freely, but did not state that he (Lall) would also have to do the same for the buildings that were being compared.
“I am dumbfounded, and would gladly submit mine. But I want the bill of quantities for the $69M National Insurance Scheme (NIS),” Lall had stressed.
The reconstructed NIS building is a one-flat office.
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