Resh­ma Ra­goonath

Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Tim Gopeesingh says an in­ves­ti­ga­tion has been launched in­to mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar cost over­runs at Cou­va West Sec­ondary School. Gopeesingh, speak­ing with re­porters dur­ing a tour of schools in the Na­pari­ma con­stituen­cy on Wednes­day, de­scribed the sit­u­a­tion at Cou­va West, which has been un­der con­struc­tion since 2007, as "un­ten­able."He said an in­ves­ti­ga­tion is now un­der­way and he ex­pect­ed to have a re­port soon.

Gopeesingh added: "I in­her­it­ed that from the last gov­ern­ment. It has been un­der con­struc­tion since 2007 and that school is sup­posed to cost about $180 mil­lion. It is like a mi­ni-ho­tel."

In 2007 Trin­i­ty Hous­ing, a lo­cal com­pa­ny owned by Ra­hael Hold­ings Ltd, of San Juan, start­ed work on the school un­der the Peo­ple's Na­tion­al Move­ment regime. The con­trac­tor was as­signed to build eight sec­ondary schools.

The min­is­ter said the school has been a chal­lenge since he came in­to of­fice.Work on it had stopped be­cause the con­trac­tor had not been paid, he said, but when he as­sumed of­fice, work had re­sumed.He said af­ter ne­go­ti­a­tions with the con­trac­tor, "we seem to be back on track with the eight schools."But he ex­pressed con­cern over the mount­ing cost of the school, in­clud­ing its $30 mil­lion air con­di­tion­ing sys­tem.

He added: "How can you be ex­pect­ing to con­struct a school for $180 mil­lion and start­ing from 2007? One de­sign con­sul­tant was the con­sul­tant for most of these schools.

"The air con­di­tion sys­tem is to the val­ue of $30 mil­lion, $30 mil­lion for an air con­di­tion sys­tem. Where that come from?"Gopeesingh ques­tioned the re­la­tion­ship be­tween the de­sign con­sul­tant and the project man­age­ment con­sul­tant which was "in tan­dem with oth­er peo­ple whom I will speak about sub­se­quent­ly and that is un­ten­able.

"Why should we have to be spend­ing $30 mil­lion on an air-con­di­tion­ing sys­tem for a school and a school cost­ing $180 mil­lion. This is what we have had to face," the min­is­ter added.