Rental of Sussex St drug bond expected to conclude by year-end

The Sussex Street bond

The multimillion contract for the monthly rental of the controversial Sussex Street drug bond isn’t expected to be renewed beyond December 31, 2017, as Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence maintains that the government is still aiming to cease the use of all private bonds by that time.

Lawrence’s pronouncement comes in wake of the concern expressed by opposition parliamentarian Anil Nandlall that one year after the scandal over the rental of the property, the contract was yet to be terminated.

Despite the controversy over the rental of the property, the Ministry budgeted $150 million for the full year’s rent for 2017. Observers had expressed the view that the contract should have been scrapped immediately and that those monies should never have been approved.

Approached as she was leaving a Ministry of  Public Health event held at the Guyana Marriott Hotel last Thursday, Lawrence said, “I had