In the first quarter of 2020, the Public Health Ministry is expected to commission its headquarters at Brickdam, Georgetown to facilitate all the senior officers operating out of one location.
The Ministry’s Headquarters being constructed at Brickdam
The building is currently being constructed at Lot 1 Brickdam alongside an existing Public Health building.
Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence explained that works were ongoing on the first phase of the structure. “You may be aware that the Ministry of Public Health’s various departments are spread across Georgetown and so we have had conversations with the Ministry of Finance letting them know of our concerns that we cannot flow as we are supposed to flow,” she added.
Lawrence said the work of the Ministry was usually slowed down owing to its departments being scattered across the capital city as many times persons would have to move from the offices at Lamaha Street to Camp Street or Thomas Street to Brickdam.
“We want to ensure that this is a one stop, one shop for persons … this will house basically the main offices (such as) the PS (Permanent Secretary’s) office, Finance, Planning, the Regional Health Care Services, the MCH, the Chief Nursing Officer, etcetera, CMO (Chief Medical Officer), DCMO (Deputy Chief Medical Officer) and so on,” she noted.
The Minister could not speak to the cost of the building being constructed, since according to her the contractors would have encountered “issues”.
The Ministry’s head office was destroyed by fire back in 2009.
The Public Health Ministry has been in the spotlight recently after encountering several difficulties relating to its buildings. One such issue was only recently resolved with the commissioning of a $539 million drug bond in Kingston, Georgetown.
Prior to the opening of the bond last month, the Ministry was renting a bond at Sussex Street in Georgetown to house its drugs.
In fact, the State had paid out over $200 million in rental fees in just under two years. The transaction first came to light in 2016 during parliamentary consideration of financial papers, when it was discovered that Government had entered into a contract to pay a VAT- excluded $12.5 million monthly rental for the storage of drugs and medical supplies.
It was also discovered that $25 million was already spent as a security deposit, in addition to $12.5 million in monthly rentals from August to December 2016.
The criticism that erupted led President David Granger to set up a Cabinet sub-committee to investigate the matter and make recommendations.
After much criticism and fallout, the Government said that it had stopped renting the facility in December 2018.
