Work on abandoned Reform Hindu school to restart

Education minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly has defended her administration's delay in completing the repair and refurbishment of schools, citing funding challenges to get the job done on time.

Her response came after UNC councillor for Reform/Manahamabre Chris Arshad Hosein chastised the government of not addressing the issues of the Reform Hindu School in the 2021 budget.

He said the project was last mentioned in 2017 budget and accused the government of “blatant disregard.”

“The parents and students have protested dozens of times with absolutely nothing being done. The government has completely neglected the children of Reform Hindu School out of what could only be described as pure spite and malice,” Hosein said last week.

But Gadsby-Dolly in a WhatsApp exchange with Newsday on Saturday noted that this school and almost 100 others were earmarked between 2010-2015 for work to be done without proper funding plans in place.

“Contracts totalling over $2 billion, were awarded without a funding plan for completion. Therefore, with the reduction in revenue that the country experienced from 2014 onwards, which became increasingly acute, funding of these projects became a serious concern.”

Gadsby-Dolly added that investigations into the contracts revealed inflated invoices and such projects had to be halted to ensure accountability and transparency.

She said, “In 2015, the invoices for payment for these school projects came under scrutiny, as some invoices were thought to be severely inflated.

“This resulted in a verification exercise and a halt in payments, which precipitated several court judgements, the payments for which have diverted funds meant to continue critical work on schools.”

The minister said Reform Hindu School fell into this dilemma after having 85 per cent of its works completed.

She added that work has restarted on the unfinished schools and was being done in phases.

“All cannot be completed at the same time as funding is not forthcoming. The final stages of 14 schools were being outfitted at a cost of approximately $200 million.

“Phase two, totalling ten schools, is to be started soon. Reform Hindu Primary will be similarly addressed as soon as possible,” Gabsby-Dolly said.