Technocrats at the Ministry of Health and Wellness as well as from the Departments of Infrastructure, Port Services and Energy, and Economic Development, Transport and Civil Aviation; provided the media with an update on Tuesday, regarding the construction of the Dennery Polyclinic.
Also there to speak on the progress of the construction was the Managing Director of Engineering Construction & Management Consulting (ECMC) Ltd Egbert Louis, since the company is the Consultant on the project.
The Sod Turning Ceremony of the Polyclinic took place in March earlier this year, and it was prognosticated that it would take 18 months to complete construction.
However, Permanent Secretary in the Department of Economic Development Philip Dalsou, announced some bad news regarding the project.
“It was estimated that the construction period for the Dennery Polyclinic would be eighteen months. The construction of the Dennery Polyclinic has, however, not progressed smoothly as it should have and we have encountered delays.” Dalsou offered.
A reason for the delay appears to do with two or three rivulets found on the site, as revealed by ECMC’s Egbert Louis.
“One of the critical issues that has gotten us to this stage is that during the excavation of the foundation for the buildings we recognised that there are two or three ravines which pass through the site. This of course meant that we would need to undertake some sort of redesign of the structure.” Louis explained.
I asked whether or not this kind of update, given it is not a positive one, is a sort of response from the Government to critics of their level of transparency.
“This Government is a very transparent government” responded Hon. Guy Joseph, Minister in the Department of Economic Development, Transport and Civil Aviation.
Joseph continued stating: “It is just that some of the information revealed is not readily accepted.”
Joseph offered that had the information provided about the polyclinic been done by politicians, rather than the technocrats present, it would be received differently.
“So the issues that we are dealing with today in relation to the Polyclinic as you would see; the technical team that is responsible for the project; they are the ones coming to give the information; because if it came from a politician most likely it would be taken from a different perspective.”
“So they are not driven here by politics;” Joseph explained. “They are driven here by their professionalism, in what they do and we were given good advice I believe in terms of the approach.”
