Major renovations slated for the Ministry of the Presidency are on hold pending a decision to relocate some offices to the National Trust building, located next to State House, on Carmichael Street
“There has been no decision yet on the National Trust but as soon a decision is made in that regard, certainly, you will know,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon said yesterday, when asked by Stabroek News for an update on government’s decision to move to the building.
Stabroek News understands that staff at the National Trust were told to prepare for relocation to Castellani House “very soon” as the Ministry of the Presidency would be using the Carmichael Street building.
The building also once housed the Integrity Commission and the maintenance department of the former Ministry of Culture.
When Stabroek News visited the property on Wednesday the building was desolate, except for a security officer on the site and a worker in the National Trust’s office. The employee of the National Trust told this newspaper that the organisation’s Chief Executive Officer Nirvana Persaud was not in office and when she returned she would be in a meeting until after 3.30 pm. Despite efforts on Wednesday and yesterday, this newspaper has been unable to contact Persaud.
The security officer informed that the Integrity Commission was no longer at the building and calls to a number listed on the signboard rang out.
Harmon yesterday said that a move by some entities within the Ministry of the Presidency was imminent because of pending rehabilitative works.
“But what I can say to you is that some of these movements became necessary because this building here, in which we are, is due for major renovation works. The Cabinet room itself is cramped, so there is to be some extension to the Cabinet room. This will in fact affect the functioning of the office of the President. You can’t have the President trying to function and hammer and nail going all over the place. The whole idea was that his secretariat would move from there to facilitate the work to be done,” he said.
“It is going to be a temporary period and that is why the movement of the other building had been put on hold. We have to make do with smaller spaces. But certainly the work which has to be done on this building is basically awaiting that to take place. The contract is already awarded, the contractor is already mobilised. He is ready to go and we would like to see it happening very soon,” he added.
The Ministry of the Presidency had announced plans to have the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology moved from its current location on Main Street in order to occupy the building. The ministry had added two new departments—the Department of the Environment and the Department of National Events—at its current location and said it was cramped for space. The enormous public outcry over the potential damage to museum’s artefacts that could be done during such a relocation led to it being put on hold.
