The Performing Arts Centre, under construction at Princes Building Grounds in Port-of-Spain, has incurred a significant cost overrun and must be hauled before the ongoing Commission of Enquiry into the public construction sector, president of the Joint Consultative Council Winston Riley insists.

“That is a significant cost overrun which we (JCC) have to bring to the attention of the Commission of Enquiry,” he said on Monday during a news conference at the JCC’s office at the Professional Centre Building, Wrightson Road Extension, Port-of-Spain. Riley said the cost overrun had not been addressed in the Acutus report, which was undertaken by Scottish construction expert Gerry McCaffrey.

The centre, being constructed by Shanghai Construction Group Corporation, under a concessional loan and framework agreement between T&T and China, was expected to cost taxpayers some $378 million, former Culture Minister Joan Yuille-Williams had said in Parliament on September 11, 2007. Riley, during the briefing, questioned the role of the hotel on the facility, saying it was unnecessary. He said the Artists’ Coalition of T&T had stated, on its Web site, that the centre could not facilitate dance and theatre training. “And now a facility is being developed near the John Donaldson Institute to take into account the training of dance and theatre,” said Riley.

“It raises the issue as to the role of the hotel on the site because if you have training for dance and training for theatre—which are the largest groups that are going to be there—then the issue of hotel accommodation comes into play. “But, if it is no longer there what then is the role of the hotel on the site?” Riley said a local contractor had originally been awarded the project, but was “summarily dismissed” and the job, passed on to the Chinese. “The local architect knew all of the problems on the site and had methods for resolving those problems,” he claimed.