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TAXPAYERS are likely to be called on to bear the $22-million it will cost to correct a design error at the Downtown Transport Centre, on which $400 million has already been spent.
Joy Douglas, managing director of the State-run Urban Development Corporation (UDC), told yesterday's meeting of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the complex was completed without proper shelter for commuters, and that a further $22 million was needed to correct the design error.
The costly transport centre, which is yet to be commissioned into use, was the subject of a second week of scrutiny by the PAC.
Members of the PAC were not amused at the disclosure of the additional expenditure, and none were more incensed than PAC chairman and former finance minister Dr Omar Davies, and the consistent Everald Warmington, who described the complex as a "disgrace, which serves no damn purpose".
Davies, as well as other committee members, said they were confused by the "circumlocutory explanation" given by Douglas, who they said was too careful in her attempt not to blame her predecessors for the fiasco.
"...Our internal people (from the UDC) looked at the matter and have come up with a solution, which will now solve that problem. So the existing shelters are not completely redundant because in the normal day with sunlight, etc, commuters can utilise them, but in the event of a shower of rain, the solution that has been proposed will allow them to move to that area, if necessary, for adequate shelter," Douglas told the PAC.
The UDC boss said her organisation was not averse to providing the additional funds from its accounts receivables to correct the problem at the transport centre.
Davies asked the PAC to examine the recommended correction, saying he did not want the body to come back asking for more money to correct a "drizzle", suggesting that sheds at the transport centre were not suitable for sheltering even in light rain.
"I would like to see a formal sign-off of that which you have proposed, the modifications that are acceptable to the ministry and the Jamaica Urban Transit Company before you proceed with $22 million if you had forgotten rain and wind...," Davies said.
Added Warmington: "The issue of the shed, shelter, or whatever you want to call it, they don't look 'shelterish' to me."
Davies, who intervened, asked: "Oh, you've been there?"
Warmington continued: "It is a disgrace. And it's one of the things I wanted to ask today. How do they expect those things to provide shelter for pedestrians? There is nowhere to protect you from rain, from sun or from anything! Someone did some little stylish thing but it cannot work! It just cannot work! It curved at the top, and in a way not to protect the pedestrians there. So it serves no damn purpose!"
Davies: "Hold on, hold on. I know you feel strongly about it..."
Warmington: "It serves no purpose whatsoever, apart from someone to earn consultancy fee."
Government member Andrew Gallimore agreed with Warmington, saying that what he had seen of the centre "was a shame and a disgrace".
Opposition member Fitz Jackson said he was disappointed with the state of affairs as the waste spanned administrations.
Davies said he wanted to know how could something so blatantly inadequate have been designed, and also how could the UDC have supervised the project.
The UDC's Douglas said there was a long history of back-and-forth exchanges that could explain the current situation, which caused Davies to quip, "So you design something that is of benefit to no one."
Gallimore said he could not believe that so much money had been spent to design a transport centre, which now needs additional money that "would only serve to irritate people indefinitely".
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/22m-error_7713869
Joy Douglas, managing director of the State-run Urban Development Corporation (UDC), told yesterday's meeting of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the complex was completed without proper shelter for commuters, and that a further $22 million was needed to correct the design error.
The costly transport centre, which is yet to be commissioned into use, was the subject of a second week of scrutiny by the PAC.
Members of the PAC were not amused at the disclosure of the additional expenditure, and none were more incensed than PAC chairman and former finance minister Dr Omar Davies, and the consistent Everald Warmington, who described the complex as a "disgrace, which serves no damn purpose".
Davies, as well as other committee members, said they were confused by the "circumlocutory explanation" given by Douglas, who they said was too careful in her attempt not to blame her predecessors for the fiasco.
"...Our internal people (from the UDC) looked at the matter and have come up with a solution, which will now solve that problem. So the existing shelters are not completely redundant because in the normal day with sunlight, etc, commuters can utilise them, but in the event of a shower of rain, the solution that has been proposed will allow them to move to that area, if necessary, for adequate shelter," Douglas told the PAC.
The UDC boss said her organisation was not averse to providing the additional funds from its accounts receivables to correct the problem at the transport centre.
Davies asked the PAC to examine the recommended correction, saying he did not want the body to come back asking for more money to correct a "drizzle", suggesting that sheds at the transport centre were not suitable for sheltering even in light rain.
"I would like to see a formal sign-off of that which you have proposed, the modifications that are acceptable to the ministry and the Jamaica Urban Transit Company before you proceed with $22 million if you had forgotten rain and wind...," Davies said.
Added Warmington: "The issue of the shed, shelter, or whatever you want to call it, they don't look 'shelterish' to me."
Davies, who intervened, asked: "Oh, you've been there?"
Warmington continued: "It is a disgrace. And it's one of the things I wanted to ask today. How do they expect those things to provide shelter for pedestrians? There is nowhere to protect you from rain, from sun or from anything! Someone did some little stylish thing but it cannot work! It just cannot work! It curved at the top, and in a way not to protect the pedestrians there. So it serves no damn purpose!"
Davies: "Hold on, hold on. I know you feel strongly about it..."
Warmington: "It serves no purpose whatsoever, apart from someone to earn consultancy fee."
Government member Andrew Gallimore agreed with Warmington, saying that what he had seen of the centre "was a shame and a disgrace".
Opposition member Fitz Jackson said he was disappointed with the state of affairs as the waste spanned administrations.
Davies said he wanted to know how could something so blatantly inadequate have been designed, and also how could the UDC have supervised the project.
The UDC's Douglas said there was a long history of back-and-forth exchanges that could explain the current situation, which caused Davies to quip, "So you design something that is of benefit to no one."
Gallimore said he could not believe that so much money had been spent to design a transport centre, which now needs additional money that "would only serve to irritate people indefinitely".
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/22m-error_7713869
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