Chief Engineer, Colvern Venture, on Friday maintained that rehabilitation work had been done at the City Constabulary Training School to the tune of $47 million, though he admitted that the space remains uninhabitable.
“Work was done at the complex last year,” Venture said in response to questions from Sherwin Benjamin, legal assistant to the Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the operations of the City administration. The engineer, however, stopped short of declaring that his department was satisfied with the work, even as he claimed to have visited the complex.
“I’m aware of what’s happening there sir,” Venture noted.
Based on submissions made to the CoI by PPP/C Councillor Bishram Kuppen, Benjamin claimed that $47 million had been spent by council on repair works at the school, which continues to be in a state of disrepair with rotten, waterlogged, moss-covered floors and termite-infested rooms. Stabroek News has, however, only been able to verify an expenditure of $19,973,000. Works on the school were not budgeted for in 2017 but the Auditor General’s report for that year stated that City Hall had in January 2017 been granted $200 million by the Ministry of Communities for the execution of several projects, including the rehabilitation of the Kitty Market, the Constabulary Training School, the City Engineer’s Building, the Constabulary Headquarters Building and the Albouystown Clinic.