House votes against $1.25B for specialty hospital

Apr 18, 2013 News

– Nagamootoo says cut not “willy nilly”

Seeing no clear accountability on the part of the government, the opposition controlled National Assembly voted against the $1.25 billion the government was seeking to move ahead with construction of the Specialty Hospital.
Moses Nagamootoo of the Alliance For Change (AFC) said that his party could not in “good conscience” vote for the project because the government was offering contradictory explanations especially with regards to the amount of money that has been spent so far.
The government tried its best to stave off the cuts, but could not win by an opposition demand that the government “come clean.”
The government tried to use the Parliamentary rules to prevent the largest coalition bloc APNU from moving that the estimate be reduced to a single dollar. The Speaker agreed that the notice by APNU did not pass a full day as required by the rules.
However, Khemraj Ramjattan of the AFC, who had tabled a notice to cut the budget since last Friday, was allowed to move his motion to reduce the estimates for the hospital to zero.

Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran reacts to the budget cut. (Neilon Dias photo)

The motion was put to a vote and the opposition won against the government 33-32.
Minister of Health, Dr. Bheri Ramsaran, said that works done on the site so far included site clearance, reinforce concrete culverts, drains, and rehabilitation of the eastern perimeter fence. He said that $52.3 million was being spent on that.
However, Parliamentarian Annette Ferguson said she had visited the site and could not see evidence of those works.
Nagamootoo, who lives close to the site, said all he sees are piles of white sand that paints the imagery of a white elephant. He said last year what he saw were piles of earth that he called “the dirty dozen.”
Ramsaran sought to clarify that there were two contracts for the preparatory stage of the contract.
One of those was given to Bovell Construction. But the opposition said that too many conflicting figures were being given.
Nagamootoo said that they were told that the contract to Bovell was $29 million and now they were being told of a new figure of $52 million, and then there was also a sum of $100 million mentioned in the budget estimates.
As such, he said that the AFC was in doubt as to the real figures and could not decide if to believe what the Minister was saying or what was on the books.
“Our concern is about the people’s purse,” Nagamootoo stated.
The Finance Minister then explained that the India Exim Bank, which is funding the Design, Build and Equip contract, has made an initial disbursement of US$3.6 million to Surendra Engineering.
Ramsaran said that that “mobilization” amount would have been awarded by the bank after they did their due diligence on Surendra.
Ramjattan asked if Surendra engineering has ever built a specialty hospital as against Fedders Lloyd, the other bidder.
Ramsaran said that he believed the answer was in the position and could provide that information.
The Health Minister argued that “we need to move forward” because Surendra needed urgent response so that it could order the fabrication of steel structures and buy a certain type of piles.
With the geo-technical survey completed, Ramsaran said that the design phase is well advanced, and the Ministry of Health would now have to make certain pronouncements so that the company can design based on the results of the geo-technical survey.
The AFC had said it would not support the construction of the proposed Specialty Hospital due to the irregularities surrounding the award of the contract.