PERMANENT SECRETARY SAYS DCA MAY NOT BE QUALIFIED TO MAKE CERTAIN ASSESSMENTS!

The history of the design and construction of the Dennery Polyclinic has been an abysmal read, to put it lightly. Expectations were understandably high at its sod-turning ceremony two years ago. But six months later, government technocrats explained why the initial 18-month completion date had to be reconsidered.

Egbert Louis, the managing director of Engineering Construction & Management Consulting, said: “One of the critical issues that has gotten us to this stage is that during the excavation of the foundation for the buildings we recognized that there are two or three ravines that pass through the site. This of course meant that we would need to undertake some sort of redesign of the structure.”

Not much has changed. As it stands, construction still has not recommenced on the project and the World Bank is reviewing the updated designs. This week, providing an update for the progress of the Dennery Polyclinic construction was the economic development minister, Guy Joseph. “You would recall we had a sod-turning ceremony and I challenged the contractors to deliver the project in a timely manner. You also know that the project had to be discontinued after mere months into it.”

These issues with the polyclinic reminded Joseph of the challenges confronting Saint Lucia. “I came in as minister and found an approved plan for the Dennery Polyclinic. I asked: ‘Can we review what is there so we can be sure of what we’re doing?’ I was told that to do so would be considered political interference. It is a project funded by the World Bank and politicians don’t get involved. The project went out to tender, contracts were awarded and all of the local agencies signed off on it: Ministry of Health, Department of Economic Planning, DCA. As soon as construction commenced, so many design flaws came to light that work on the project had to be stopped. We had to go back to the drawing board—which is what I had requested in the first place, and now we are meeting with the World Bank this week.”

Joseph added: “We need to learn from what happens in our country.” He suggested that lessons from the construction of the OKEU and St Jude hospitals should have been applied to the Dennery Polyclinic project. “Constructing hospitals and healthcare facilities demand specialists,” he said. “If you consider those who qualified to tender on the OKEU designs, when it came to DCA approval, we did not have the capacity locally to review internally and make a determination as to whether the design meets all the requirements of a hospital. The consultants who designed the hospital, signed off on an agreement to give a guarantee that their design met the requirement and that if there were any defects in their design, they would be accountable and held liable.”

Joseph revealed: “When the designs for St Jude went to the DCA, we faced the same challenge. We are too small. How many hospitals have we built in this country to demonstrate our expertise in this field? We went through the same process utilized for OKEU. The design consultant gave a letter or warranty on his design backed up by the British company that did the architectural design. We must acknowledge our limitations as government, as well as our capacity as a country, and use the best expertise available so as not to keep repeating expensive mistakes.”

Permanent secretary at the economic development department, Claudius Emmanuel, further explained: “Based on our information, the plans went to the DCA.  Works proceeded along the lines of what was approved. What we perhaps have seen is the technical deficiency that resides within the DCA because it requires a significant amount of technical oversight to be able to assess what is before you. And at the DCA, you may not always have residing at that level the requisite capabilities to be able to assess. It may also have been a case of the level of review of the drawings before they actually got to the DCA. These may have fallen short as well.”

The PS’s statement on the country’s shortcomings in project implementation could not be clearer. He also confirmed that the project will recommence as soon as confirmed by the World Bank. We go back to his minister: despite the bad news on the Dennery Polyclinic, Joseph was positive about Saint Lucia’s economic outlook. “I am confident with the medium-term strategy we are employing and all the plans being laid in the Ministry of Economic Development. Saint Lucia will be placed on a much better path to be able to attain the goals of a manageable debt to GDP and a sustainable development plan that will take us well into the future with a growing economy.”