WE have all sat back for the last two years watching the Pierre Administration squander our limited resources by way of the most imbecilic, political vendetta ever. A political vendetta against one man at an unnecessarily exorbitant cost to all the people of St. Lucia. St Lucians, be reminded, that the current Prime Minister has never personally invested in nor created any form of investment into St Lucia. He has not even built his own home in St. Lucia. He has earned a salary for the past thirty years from the taxpayers of this country. How can we trust his judgement in taking a loan of over two hundred million EC dollars, which he intends to spend in a project which has no final cost, no expected date of completion and which we, the people, have no idea what the final configuration will be in terms of numbers of beds and list of the services that will be provided at this hospital? This is absolute madness!
Presently, we have an almost completed, brand-new, modern, purpose-built building, paid for by St. Lucia’s taxpayers, which can be fully operational in six months. A building with a guaranteed life span of at least seventy-five years.
Are we, as a people, prepared to permit the Prime Minister, to misspend 200 million dollars plus interest and fees of our hard-earned tax dollars, into an 80-year-old structure? The Philip J Pierre Administration is the custodian of our tax dollars but they do not own tax dollars. Why then should we allow them to spend our monies as they please?
We have recently learned that the 80-year-old structure has no DCA approval. Additionally, we have recently discovered that the quantities, and scope of works are being undertaken by an unrenowned engineer, who has zero experience in the field of modern-day hospital construction.
In similar ill-advised fashion, the hospital equipment is presently being sourced by an unpracticed cohort. The pattern being followed is a carbon copy of what transpired ten to twelve years ago, when the equipment was prematurely ordered and sat in warehouses around the country for years, while the warranty on these pieces of equipment expired, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. How many times will taxpayers be called upon to pay for the same errors of the past?
The host of Untold Stories interviewed the MP for Castries North, Hon. Stephenson King, who was the Prime Minister during the first stages of the reconstruction of St Jude Hospital. The interviewer repeatedly posed the question, “DID YOU SEEK PROFESSIONAL ADVICE ON THE WAY FORWARD FOR A HOSPITAL”, but Mr. King dodged the question and never confirmed nor denied receiving professional advice. These tell-tale warning signs were ignored to the peril of the people of this country. Therein, is another Cardinal Sin, perpetrated on the people of St. Lucia by those who now make up the present Philip J Pierre administration.
One would have thought that after receiving the professional advice of Cyril ‘Concreto’ Donnelly, the first contractor, on the Project, that the present Minister of Infrastructure, Mr. Stephenson King and former Prime Minister Dr. Kenny D. Anthony, would have warned the Pierre administration, of the financial mess that would be created, as a result of commencing such a specialized project with incomplete and unapproved plans. In comparison, the new structure, built under the UWP administration, in which a qualified team from St. Lucia were flown to the Cayman Islands, to witness how a modern hospital should be designed and constructed. Thereafter, a full set of drawings were drawn up by qualified architects with DCA approval.
Today, St Lucia has a first-class hospital building, which the current administration refuses to acknowledge, because of petty, vindictive, partisan politics. St. Lucia can only hope that good sense will finally prevail, when the Pierre administration, will realize what they are hoping to achieve, by returning to an octogenarian structure, will only bring tears and heartache to his administration and our nation.