More funding to make President’s office ‘look Presidential’

More funding has been secured for the Government to continue works at the Ministry of the Presidency.

The Ministry of the Presidency’s budget was the first to be approved by the Parliamentary Committee of Supply on Monday.

Under funding for “maintenance of other infrastructure” the Ministry’s revised budget for 2018 was put at $100.9 million, some $70 million more than what was budgeted for the agency. The sum includes funding for works at the Department of Citizenship and Castellani House. 

The works budgeted included flood control measures at the Presidential Complex and does not include the new fence builtaround the office.

“We are trying to make the Presidential complex look Presidential,” Minister of State Joseph Harmon said Monday during the consideration of the budget estimates. 

He said that when the Coalition Government got into power in 2015, the first inexperience was flooding, where documents in bottom offices were lost. He said revetment around the complex was poor as was drainage and so the works are meant to fix these in an incremental basis.

Works are ongoing to install new pavement in the yard, as the current pavement was “uneven,” Harmon stated.

Opposition Parliamentarian Anil Nandlall requested copies of the contracts for the works being undertaken and Minister Harmon agreed to provide these.