Minister of Local Govern-ment and Regional Development, Nigel Dharamlall, yesterday said that his ministry will have to review the $270 million contract for the Parika Market Complex which was in its second phase of rehabilitation when it was destroyed by a massive fire last Friday putting dozens of vendors out of business.
During an interview with the media yesterday on the sidelines of a meeting with Indigenous leaders to discuss carbon credits financing at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, Dharamlall remarked that although his main aim is to have the market completed as early as possible, his ministry will have to review the contract, and when that is completed, remedial works will commence once the area has been cleaned out.
“The intention is to get the market completed so we’d have to relook at the contract to see how best we could get the contract completed. Things that could be salvaged will have to be salvaged and those things that would have to be corrected, we would have to make modifications… currently the cleaning is ongoing so until the cleaning is finished only then we’ll be able to know what exactly obtains on the ground… and to what extent we’ll have to do remedial work and take corrective actions.”
He disclosed that discussions have so far been held with the vendors as it relates to potential places to vend. “We’ve had some discussions and we have to find a way to make sure that they get back into some mode of business as quickly as possible, so currently we have discussions going on with the vendors, we have some areas that we have thought of with the vendors but the intention is collectively we will determine… right around in the vicinity of the market but not in any way that will contravene the flow of traffic.”
Asked about who might be held accountable for the fire, Dharamlall replied, “We’ll have to look at the engineering report, we have to look at the fire report and determine to what extent the penalty clauses would be implemented…but from the early recognizance of the site, a lot of things could be salvaged and hopefully we’ll be able to still construct a market within a very short time time-frame.”
Sparks from the contractor’s welding has been identified as the cause of the fire.
The minister informed that forty-four vendors were occupying the market complex which consisted of 160 stalls. He added that although some sixteen persons were vending illegally on the roadside, they are still willing to work with everyone who lost their stock in the fire and are grateful that no lives were lost.
Meanwhile, Senior Minister within the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Ashni Singh, said that the vendors were informed on Monday during their visit to State House, of the various options of how the Government is willing to help them.
“We went through a process of explaining to them first of all of our efforts on the government side to get them back into operation because that’s really the most critical thing, including some temporary solutions for spaces where they can vend, but also the question of rebuilding the market and even extending the market place, and the accommodation offered by the physical market for all of the vendors to be able to come into the market now…we started the conversation about what is needed to get them back into business as quickly as possible first of all by getting a place where they can sell.”
Singh said that although it was the vendors’ responsibility to have their businesses insured, there are some that weren’t and as such the government is not in a position to fully compensate them but in the interim is looking to implement some sort of modest financial support while also working along with the banks to have low interest loans being offered to them. He added that the loans will however have to be a decision made by the vendors themselves.
“The questions of losses of course was also discussed… obviously, in the first instance, people should have insurance… of a practical stand point and many of the vendors in the market do not have insurance but we spoke about the various options in terms of assistance and support that can be provided, ways in which support can be provided to get some people back into business including some modest financial support, not full compensation, because the government is not in a position where we can fully compensate every victim of fire in business… but some form of modest financial support up to some limit but also support and assistance for them to access financing from the banks as well because many of them have fairly large businesses but they’re not really accessing finance from the bank.”
He went on to say, “We gave an assurance that we’re willing to provide some sort of help for them to get back into business but it will not constitute one hundred per cent compensation for their losses, but we did indicate that we’d be happy to assist them also to access a loan through the banking system, but obviously that’s something each vendor will have to decide on, we can’t compel people to go to the bank and borrow… that conversation is still ongoing… nothing is finalized as yet so we’re still having a conversation with them.”
Further, the Senior Minister noted that even if they are to start catering for the low interest loans which is one of their main focus for the vendors, the decision for it be at a specific amount still is being considered since there are many vendors who claimed that they have lost different amounts in products.
At the meeting on Monday, some of the vendors said that they were promised some $300,000 from President Irfaan Ali and his ministers who were present. Although they were grateful, they contended that the amount cannot cover their losses.
