Rehabilitation Of Central Board Of Health Building Completed

1. Good job. Please be sure to maintain the edifice.

2. Job well done.

   So let me get this straight… The central government needs cash, so they turn to their cash cow (Medical Benefits Scheme) and sells MBS the Church Street building for $3M. Then the government turns around and huffs the building from MBS and voila – the new home for CBH is born. In the mean time, MBS is carrying the building as an asset on their balance sheet.

   U see why no one can take these financial statements that r fabricated by these statutory corporations seriously?

   • 👀🤫, oh my, say it isn’t so.

3. you know we are good in constructing buildings, but sad enough we do a very bad job in maintaining the very same buildings. And I believe it is a matter of budget allocation. We do not set aside money or maintenance and only when things breakdown completely we fix them. Like being penny wise and pound foolish. Perhaps I have an Eye for detail but for the longest while I have been critical of the state in which many of our buildings find themselves. Take for example the MSJMC it is getting worse by the day. A simple thing like the roof spouting is not cleaned regularly allowing grass to grow in it which when it rains cause the water to flow all over which damage other part of the roof structure such as the face board. Yesterday I noticed the same thing at the entrance of the Transport Board Building. I mean it is so obvious. Grass is being allowed to grow in the spouting and water will always find his way. And the paint of the face board is stripping off exposing the wood therefore soon enough that will rot and they will have to replace the entire roof if nothing is done. I ask again through this medium Mr. PM, Lennox, don’t you guys see the wisdom in putting a maintenance team in place to check on all the buildings and make a report and have someone monitor which project has not been completed since it was reported. Prevention is better and cheaper than to completely renovate a building. And he building will last much longer. Spend your hard earned tax dollars wisely. Hire a quality control person that will go around and report on every single building faults. And I understand some have higher priority than others. But you got to start by taking care of what you have

4. Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! “The Afrocentric method considers that no phenomena can be apprehended adequately without locating it first. A phenom must be studied and analyzed in relationship to psychological time and space. It must always be located. This is the only way to investigate the complex interrelationships of science and art, design and execution, creation and maintenance, generation and tradition, and other areas bypassed by theory.” – Dr Molefi Kete Asante, Afrocentricity, The Theory of Social Change!

   This mere voice in the wilderness wishes to give thanks for the upgrading of the facility to provide a safe, clean and healthy working environment in “a well refurbished complex” as “the new home of the CBH workers as well as a number of Medical staff!”

   This mere voice in the wilderness through training and practice takes a holistic and integrated view to Facilities and Infrastructure Management from Master Planning to Asset and Risk Management! This suggests that parts of the whole strategy, structure, systems, skills and culture are in intimate interconnection, such that they cannot exist independently of the whole life cycle of Facilities and Infrastructure Management! Hence, true and lasting solutions to organizational issues within the various Ministries and the Ministry of Public Works can only be meaningful and successful if the approach is holistic. As such It is always prudent to endeavour to establish and understand the facilities management system within which the issues reside!

   The claim “we are good in constructing buildings, but sad enough we do a very bad job in maintaining the very same buildings. And I believe it is a matter of budget allocation.” Is a very narrow approach as to what plagues Public and many Private Facilities and Infrastructure throughout the land!

   Over the last three decades, all the Ministers of Public Works have confided that their budgets are inadequate to provide for effective risk management and prolonging of the efficient useful life of the facilities and infrastructure! This they will defend passionately for their lack of action knowing full well that Sustainable Development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs!

   At the UNIDO conference in 1993, it was concluded that: “Generally, maintenance and rehabilitation of buildings and infrastructures are neglected aspects of CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES in developing countries. GOVERNMENTS SHOULD SET UP POLICY GUIDELINES FOR INTEGRATION MAINTENANCE AND REHABILITATION IN COST ANALYSIS, ESTIMATING AND CONTRACTING FOR NEW WORKS. Steps should also be taken for adequate maintenance of existing housing stocks, service networks and other infrastructures.”

   • Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! Since the departure of the colonial administration, the connection of a healthy living environment with proper social values has not been taught in secondary and post secondary institutions or championed by succeeding governments to stress and underpin the importance of maintaining a sustaining culture that continuously awakens the society to the need for attention in keeping the resources represented by the public stock of facilities and infrastructure! There is almost an expectation that once a building is put up it can and should last and serve forever! It seems that only people with the technical training will fully appreciate and thereby anticipate the necessary commitment to material after a lapse of time! Nowhere on the Rock do you find anyone In the Public or Private Sector discussing Cyclical Maintenance! Public education on this matter is lacking and with it the chance to build an attitude to the well being of the building stock without which we cannot expect to get over the malaise which has overtaken our consciousness! We need to develop a maintenance ethic, a culture that recognizes the inherent need to maintain buildings!

     Lamentably, we continue to lose green spaces in the Urban and Village Environments! The Encirclement Ring continues to aggressively overrun the beaches, bays, mangroves, swamps and wetlands herding the People into Barios Africanos and sterile built concrete spaces devoid of public gardens, parks and recreational areas! Hence the perception of the People of the place of maintenance is low in priority! On the Rock, this matter cannot be divorced from the alienation from nature that tends to be a natural consequence! Open space which should constitute a good portion of the public domain, and which underlines the urban and village fabric as a shared habitat, is often seen as no more than wasted opportunity to develop and make money! Poor maintenance in the national context may be related to the weak sense of community and therefore weak commitment t the quality of the shared living environment! This underpins this mere voice in the wilderness call for the demolition of the Car Park ( which by any economic construction metric is the correct action) and the restoration of the Green Space with an accompanying upgrade of the Bus Station and Independence Avenue to a Boulevard, the removal of illegal settlements and restoration of the two retention ponds! This subject of the built environment has not received the attention it could from popular media! All attention has been focused on the development in the North-East Marine Management Area in the mass circulation press! There is some public interest in the nature of our built environment on Antigua and Barbuda (including Redonda), and, the media is an important tool in exposing and directing this interest into effective opinion and helping to mold the culture! During this period when “Rona” is forcing changes, this should be a good period for All Antiguans to read: https://environment.gov.ag/assets/uploads/attachments/816fb-sustainable_island_resource_management_zoning_plan_antigua_-_barbuda.pdf

     • Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! Clearly, a maintenance ethic is lacking in Antigua and Barbuda, and this has been shown by the behaviours and attitudes taken by institutions in the political, economic, educational, socio-cultural, technological, legal and environmental sectors where maintenance is at best a peripheral concern! Are there Policies, Procedures and Regulations regarding Maintenance on the Books! The lack of maintenance standards calls for action from government agencies, professionals and the building industry!

       In recognition of the fact that facilities and infrastructure stock is part of our national wealth, the public and private sectors must evolve and support structures that enable continuous corrective, preventive and cyclical maintenance! This is suggested in the context of the essential goal of the public and private sectors of this SIDS who should be concerned with the loss of invested value especially in property! The creation of such structures is in the best interest of the Nation!

       Those familiar with Facilities Management Practice and the Mckinsey 7S Model will have been exposed to Strategy, Structure, System, Skills and Culture! Rather than focusing on those categories, this mere voice has tried to take another angle since all of the previous entreaties delved into those with no takers from past administrations!

       The need which looms large, not only on the horizon but presently before the Nation is to address the crisis of maintenance of the facilities and infrastructure stock through institutionalization! Are we up to it! Key to this suggestion is recognition by the necessary authorities that a crisis does indeed exist, and that urgent solutions must be developed and implemented! The effect on Antigua and Barbuda’s economy resultant from dilapidation of our facilities and infrastructure is high and cannot be ignored in the calculations of our wasting the National Wealth! Do GoAB and The Private Sector, save for the Tourism and Yachting Sectors, have the will and intent to put in place institutional structures that will indeed begin to address this issue at the level and with the seriousness it deserves! This will necessitate collaboration of the many professions in the industry, from design professionals, contractors, manufacturers and developers!

       The Ministry of Public Works and Housing must accept their mandate for policy and regulatory making and not continue to hide behind the Budgetary Petticoat! Training and some policy formulation must also be led effectively from the MoEST through its secondary schools, colleges, institutes and now UWI Five Islands Campus!

       However this Facilities and Infrastructure Management Deficiency is addressed, it must be firmly and cerebrally recognized and shouted from the Sherkerley Mountains that this is about The Nation’s Wealth!

       “Come, then, comrades; it would be as well to decide at once to change our ways. We must shake off the heavy darkness in which we were plunged, and leave it behind. The new day which is already at hand must find us firm, prudent and resolute. … for ourselves and for humanity, comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, and try to set afoot a” (new national development model and practice and a Caribbean Civilization.) – Frantz Fanon, 1961, The Wretched of the Earth!

Comments are closed.