Remedial work at the Vreed-en-Hoop Community High School has stalled allegedly because of a lack of funds and Regional Chairman of Region Three, Julius Faerber says that failure to resume work by a stipulated deadline will see the contract being taken away.
Faerber told Stabroek News in an interview on Wednesday that he learnt of the situation last Tuesday and gave instructions to be communicated to the contractor that failure to resume work by yesterday will see the contract being taken away and given to someone else.
The situation at the school was highlighted in this newspaper in November last year and after a series of meetings with frustrated parents who had nailed shut one of the dilapidated buildings and kept their children at home, Regional Executive Officer of the region, Nandlall Ramkissoon had promised that repairs would be done. The parents had complained of myriad problems including shoddy sanitary facilities, poor security, flooding, broken windows, a leaking roof and overcrowding. As a result of the promised repairs, a decision was taken to resume classes on a shift system which was to last for the duration of the term.
One of the dilapidated buildings had been nailed shut earlier in the year and parents had questioned why it had not been repaired earlier and whether it wasn’t considered an emergency. When asked later in the year about it, Ramkissoon had told this newspaper that “everyone has a different opinion of what is an emergency.” He had said that regardless of whether there was an emergency, procedures had to be followed.
On a visit to the school on Wednesday a senior staff member who declined to be named told Stabroek News that while some work had been completed there is still much to be done. This includes major repairs to the particular school building which had been stalled since early last month after the contractor had stopped working reportedly because of a lack of funds. The staff member stated that some work had been done, including repairs to the fence and ceiling, the fixing of the windows, placing of sand under the building to prevent water from accumulating and restoration of the water supply. The staff member pointed out, however, that the key problem of poor sanitary facilities was still not rectified even though the promised facility was completed. The staff member said that it was not “handed over” as yet and as such it was locked so no one could use it. Quizzed on this, Faerber said that according to his information the block is already in use. The senior staff member also said that the contractor had stopped work since early January when the zinc on the dilapidated building had been removed and boards placed there.
The staff member said that a part of the wooden floor and wall had also been removed but then the contractor had stopped work. Additionally, a ladder was left on the roof and staff and students fear that it could fall at anytime.
Faerber when asked about that said that the contractor had stopped work in late January and on a visit to the school during the end of last month, work was still being done.
He stated that he only learnt that work had been stopped last Tuesday when he met with Nandlall. He noted that the contractor is claiming that he had run out of funds but the man had been paid with one outstanding payment being held back because of incomplete work at a koker in Tuschen by the same contractor.
He declared that if the contractor did not restart work by the stipulated deadline the contract would be taken away and given to someone else because the region “can’t have the contract suspended indefinitely.”
Meanwhile, the staff member asserted that the teachers were frustrated with the situation after the promises made to them.
The staff member noted that to date the staff is expecting the Regional Education Officer “to say something since they asked us to work the shift system for a term but nobody came to say anything to us.”
