This week’s ceremonial turning of the sod preparatory to the construction of a complex in which to house the Government Analyst-Food & Drugs Department (GAFDD) would appear to signal the beginning of the end of the marginalization of a key state agency which has spent just a few years short of a decade performing critical functions utilizing makeshift accommodation on the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus.
The information disseminated by government is that the new GA-FDD Complex will be erected at a cost of $130 million and will include a state-of-the art laboratory and a pristine administrative complex that will cost $110 million. The remainder of the total budgeted will be used to acquire laboratory supplies, quality control equipment, proficiency-testing material and other critical items.
The more critical issue, however, will be just how long it will take to have the new facility up and running given the Spartan conditions under which it has been operating for several years.
