No decision on the future of the controversial $600M High Street building has been communicated to the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), head of the entity Rickford Vieira says.
“No decision has been made on it as yet,” he said when contacted by Stabroek News on Tuesday. He noted that he saw an article in the Kaieteur News which reported that Minister of Governance Raphael Trotman during the considerations of the 2015 estimates for the Ministry, disclosed that the GGMC is waiting on a final assessment of the building. The article said that the building was likely to be torn down.
Vieira told Stabroek News that the Commission has not received any instructions on how the building should be handled.
In June, Minister of State Joseph Harmon at his weekly post-cabinet press briefing had said that a team led by Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson will examine the controversial High Street building constructed since 2008 but unused due to defects in construction. He had described the building as a “sore thumb” sucking monies out of the public purse and said that a decision regarding the edifice would be made shortly.
The complex, which stands at the site of the former Guyana Broadcasting Corporation, was built in 2008 and has since been the source of much controversy due to defects in construction. It was at one time billed to be the head office of the GGMC.
The GGMC had invited and evaluated bids for completion of the building but contention over the award last year saw the project put on hold and garnering the attention of Cabinet.
In January, it was reported that the contract for the completion of the building would be retendered. “The announcement on when it will be retendered will be made very soon and NPTAB [National Procurement and Tender Administration Board] will be the ones overlooking that process not us,” Chairman of the GGMC’s Board of Directors Clinton Williams had told Stabroek News.
