Contracts for two major community projects signed on Thursday as the BNTF Five Programme comes to an end

BNTF Chairman, Matthew Carrette, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Services, Community Development and Gender Affairs, Claudia Bellot signs contract with contractor. Photo credit: GIS

Contracts for the refurbishment of the St. Joseph Health Centre and the upgrade of the Northern District Home for the Aged were signed by the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) and contractors on Thursday. The two projects will be funded under the BNTF Five Programme which is now coming to an end.

The BNTF Five Programme, implemented through the Ministry of Social Services, has been on-going in Dominica over the past seven years.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Services, Claudia Bellot, said that these two new projects fall in line with the Government’s mandate of developing infrastructure in local communities.

“We are very happy to be here this morning to sign off on these two contracts,” she said during the contract signing ceremonony on Thursday. “We have one additional contract to sign off on and that is for the upgrade of the Mahaut Senior Citizens Home. With all these projects, BNTF is contributing significantly to the upgrade of the health services and also to the upgrade of facilities to take care of our elderly. As I mentioned earlier, this fits in very well with the Government of Dominica’s commitment and its policy to ensure that the elderly are well taken care of and that the health facilities are upgraded to ensure that we have good health facilities to serve the population.”

Social Services Minister Hon. Gloria Shillingford says the rehabilitation of the Northern District Home for the Aged located in Grange, Portsmouth will cost in excess of four hundred thousand dollars.

“This sub-project is for the rehabilitation of the Northern District Home for the Aged situated in Grange, Portsmouth, and will include renovation work to the existing structure, extension to the existing kitchen and laundry room, new ramp for back entrance, emergency exit, covered walkway, painting, upgrade of plumbing and electricals and will cost four hundred and eighteen thousand, seven hundred and seventy-one dollars. The contractor, as was already mentioned, is Mr. Dickson Francois and the sub-project is expected to last twelve ) to fourteen weeks,” the minister said.

Meanwhile work on the refurbishment of the St. Joseph Health Centre has already begun and will involve a significant amount of physical work.

“This project seeks to address the situation and provide a more functional, comfortable and safe environment where health services can be provided and accessed in a professional manner. The sub-project proposal is for general rehabilitation of the health centre and the living quarters for the resident nurse. This includes major repairs to the roof structure, replacement of doors and windows, tiling and painting and upgrade to electrical and plumbing services. The cost of the contract is four hundred and forty-seven, three hundred and five dollars and Mr. Earl Charles is the contractor. This sub-project is also expected to last twelve to fourteen weeks,” Shillingford pointed out.

To date eight million nine hundred and sixteen thousand dollars has been spent on BNTF five sub projects across the country.

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3 Comments

  1. worried dominican
    February 21, 2011

    really 400.000 thousand please seems like they are building a complete new buildind g ,who are you all fooloing with these figures please give me a break.

  2. Observer
    February 21, 2011

    A $400,000+ job in 12 to 14 wks? Wow. Nice pay. I wonder what is the material cost, and labor cost.

  3. citoyen
    February 21, 2011

    seems like things start moving on the north since Ian get fire under his b(*&.
    Good move for our elderlies

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