$$ saved as Ministry gets own car park

Public Administration Minister Maxie Cuffie made the announcement yesterday at the launch at Lower Abercromby Street near Pancho’s Snackette.

Cuffie lauded the accomplishment for being one of the first projects under the 2017 budget to be completed and as one step in curbing money mismanagement by Government.

He said, “This project is the first accomplishment out of the 2017 budget, which was read last Friday.

The budget isn’t passed yet, but the project is already finished. Under the PSIP (public sector investment programme) $500,000 was allocated for construction of a car park and it was done in record time. Now, before anyone asks how this was done before the Budget, this was done using funds from the last budget.

“We realised we had extra funds which we needed to utilise before the end of the financial year...We got Cabinet approval to finish it and we had the approval of the Ministry of Finance to move the funds to be able to complete it. And all of this took place in under five weeks. In fact, the project began on August 23rd, the procurement took three weeks and the actual project was completed in two weeks,” Cuffie said. He added that it sets a new benchmark in terms of delivery of public services. “Everywhere you go, you hear people talking about the length of time it takes to do projects and how long the procurement cycle takes.

The procurement which normally takes three months, we were able to do in three weeks.” Cuffie said the Ministry spends $178,000 a month paying for car parking services at the Parkade (Government Campus Plaza Parkade).

“This new service will cut down our bill by $132,000.” While the Ministry has 28 parking spaces at the Parkade, the new car park has 32 spaces.

With the removal of the guard booth soon to take place, eight more parking spaces will become available, making 40 available to the Ministry. Cuffie said when the project was first suggested, the initial estimated cost was $924,000. However in the end, the project ended up costing $496,000, so that the Ministry worked within its $500,000 budget.