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Brickdam Lockups finally completed after seven years
Cutting of the ribbon to open the lock-ups
Minister Robeson Benn along with advisor to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Harry Gill and its new Permanent Secretary Mae Thomas inspecting the lock-ups.
Inside one of the cells
Kaieteur News – The new Brickdam Lockups, which according to Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn cost $60M and took some seven years to be completed has finally been commissioned.
The facility which is designed and modeled to house 52 prisoners was yesterday handed over to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) by the Home Affairs Minister.
After a brief speech, he along with the newly appointed Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mae Thomas cut the red ribbon and declared the facility operable.
The project for the upgrade of what was once considered to be the most feared lock-ups in Georgetown begun in 2013 under the Donald Ramotar-led People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration.
A shot of some of a few cells
One of the bathrooms seen in the new lock-ups
Kaieteur News had reported that then Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, had estimated the cost to be in excess of some $50M. Benn after acknowledging this fact during his address at the handing over ceremony, said that it seems as though nothing was done to make the lockups operable by the previous government after PPPC left office.
The previous government A Partnership for National Unity +Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) had however detailed in 2016 that major corrective works had to be done because of design flaws. Moreover, it announced that some $20M more had to be injected into the project but had remained silent since then.
Little over a month after the PPPC administration was sworn in on August 2, Kaieteur News had reported on September 6 that seven years spanning three administrations had passed and the facility was still under repairs.
Top officials had told this newspaper that they were eager for the lockups to be completed since a high percentage of crimes are committed in the city. With the Brickdam location out of order, they said, other smaller police lockups are often over crowded. They added that police resources were also being strained to transport prisoners.
Benn had informed this media house that works were almost completed and explained that some minor modifications had to be made to ensure better air flow into the cells. He had further mentioned that the contractor had asked for a little bit more time to wrap those works and promised that the lockups would have been commissioned within a week’s time. That week turned into another month with the facility finally being commissioned yesterday.
The Minister was questioned at the commissioning about the overall costs of the project including the minor modifications and ventilation adjustments, which had supposedly delayed the project’s completion. The Minister turned to his engineer who told him the overall cost was $60M.
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