Richard Lord

The Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs pro­pos­es to spend $116 mil­lion to ac­quire five new prop­er­ties for its diplo­mat­ic mis­sions around the world. And, amid crit­i­cism that the Gov­ern­ment does not spend enough mon­ey or at­ten­tion main­tain­ing state-owned build­ings, the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs has re­ceived an al­lo­ca­tion of an ad­di­tion­al $37.8 mil­lion to re­fur­bish and ren­o­vate 13 of T&T's for­eign diplo­mat­ic mis­sions or res­i­dences as well as con­tin­u­ing the ren­o­va­tion of Knowsley, one of the Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en hous­es around the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah.

The pro­posed ex­pen­di­ture of $116 mil­lion to ac­quire what is de­scribed as phys­i­cal cap­i­tal as­sets is con­tained in the doc­u­ment "De­tails of Es­ti­mates of Re­cur­rent Ex­pen­di­ture," one of the 2010 bud­get doc­u­ments which was laid in Par­lia­ment, be­fore Fi­nance Min­is­ter Karen Tesheira's pre­sen­ta­tion on Mon­day. The doc­u­ment re­veals that the Gov­ern­ment pro­pos­es to spend $69.5 mil­lion to pur­chase a prop­er­ty in Wash­ing­ton DC, $24.6 mil­lion to pur­chase a prop­er­ty in Toron­to and $20 mil­lion to pur­chase a prop­er­ty in Brus­sels, the cap­i­tal of Bel­gium, where many of the in­sti­tu­tions of the Eu­ro­pean Union are lo­cat­ed. The doc­u­ment re­veals that the Gov­ern­ment al­lo­cat­ed $28.8 mil­lion in the 2009 re­vised es­ti­mates to pur­chase the prop­er­ty in Brus­sels and $46.2 mil­lion in the 2009 fi­nan­cial year to ac­quire the prop­er­ty in Toron­to.

The Gov­ern­ment al­so pro­pos­es to pur­chase $1 mil­lion prop­er­ties in South Africa and in Kingston, Ja­maica, in the 2010 fi­nan­cial year.

While the Gov­ern­ment is ac­quir­ing new prop­er­ties for its for­eign diplo­mat­ic mis­sions, it al­so ex­pects to spend mil­lions of dol­lars on the ren­o­va­tion or re­fur­bish­ment of T&T's diplo­mat­ic mis­sions abroad and the head­quar­ters of the For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry at Queen's Park South, Knowsley, ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion con­tained in an­oth­er doc­u­ment, "Draft Es­ti­mates of De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme for 2010." The ex­pen­di­ture will see eight ex­ist­ing mis­sions be­ing re­fur­bished or ren­o­vat­ed along with five new mis­sions. Fol­low­ing is a list of the projects to be un­der­tak­en by the For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry:

�2 Ren­o­va­tions to Knowsley Build­ing–$18.9 mil­lion;

�2 Re­fur­bish­ment of the chancery and em­bassy in Wash­ing­ton DC–$2.5 mil­lion;

�2 Re­fur­bish­ment of prop­er­ties in Wash­ing­ton DC–$500,000;

�2 Ren­o­va­tion of the New York res­i­dence for T&T's rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the UN–$2 mil­lion;

�2 Re­fur­bish­ment of the Con­sul Gen­er­al's res­i­dence in New York–$3 mil­lion;

�2 Struc­tur­al ren­o­va­tion of chancery and res­i­dence in Ot­tawa–$1 mil­lion;

�2 Re­fur­bish­ment of the res­i­dence of the First Sec­re­tary in Kingston–$500,000;

�2 Pro­vi­sion of a new res­i­dence for the High Com­mis­sion­er in Kingston–$600,000;

�2 re­fur­bish­ment of chancery and res­i­dence in Cara­cas–$800,000

Five new projects–

�2 the re­fur­bish­ment of prop­er­ties in Cos­ta Ri­ca;

�2 con­struc­tion of High Com­mis­sion­er's res­i­dence in Abu­ja, Nige­ria;

�2 re­fur­bish­ment of chancery and res­i­dence in Pre­to­ria, South Africa;

�2 re­fur­bish­ment of chancery and res­i­dence in Brus­sels, Bel­gium and

�2 re­fur­bish­ment of res­i­dence in Gene­va will cost an es­ti­mat­ed $3 mil­lion.

The Diplo­mat­ic Acad­e­my, to be lo­cat­ed in Port-of-Spain, is es­ti­mat­ed to cost $5 mil­lion. Sources at the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs said the es­tab­lish­ment of a Diplo­mat­ic Acad­e­my "is a para­mount step in the growth of the For­eign Ser­vice and a con­trib­u­to­ry fac­tor to the achieve­ment of de­vel­oped coun­try sta­tus by 2020." Mean­while, the Gov­ern­ment has al­lo­cat­ed the sum of $2 mil­lion for es­tab­lish­ment of the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ties Com­mis­sion and Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ties Tri­bunal in T&T. The com­mis­sion is to hear and de­ter­mine com­plaints of dis­crim­i­na­tion against cit­i­zens, while the tri­bunal will hear ap­peals to the rul­ing of the com­mis­sion.