One of the public sector buildings which were badly damaged by Hurricane Irma, and are still to be repaired, is the Anguilla House of Assembly Chambers which suffered severe roof damage.
The building was not used since Hurricane Irma, and the roof is still covered by canvas while the repair work to the nearby Police Headquarters Building has been virtually completed. As a consequence of the damaged House of Assembly Building, parliamentary meetings continue to be held in the adjoining Magistrate’s Court with some inconvenience.
Governor Tim Foy, OBE, who oversees the Anguilla Programme, financed by the UK Government, told The Anguillian newspaper about the House of Assembly, in a recent interview which covered many of the projects to be funded:
“I have good news on that,” he stated. “There are two parts of the project. The first is the tender for the roof is out, and will come to an end on the 18th of July. I think three of four companies have tendered, and it is hoped that we will get a roof of very high construction standards – similar to the roof which has been put on this building [the Governor’s Office]…I think that will be completed well before September/October.”
The Governor disclosed that there had been significant consultations with the Speaker and staff at the House of Assembly, as well as with Members of the House including the Leader of the Opposition, on the internal structure. The consultations were to make sure that the layout would be what people wanted, recognising the importance of that Chamber to everything in Anguilla.
“In some ways, I always wished that it was the first project we had done because it is a symbol that Anguilla is back doing business,” he continued. “I would think that all of that work would be completed by the end of February of 2020.”
The Governor was asked whether he thought the House of Assembly work would fall in the hands of Anguillian contractors.
“I think that every project that is being tendered is open to Anguillian companies. There are absolutely no restrictions being introduced. There is no requirement to use non-Anguillian contractors. I am very, very happy to see big projects, like the secondary school, broken into smaller components so that every contractor on the island can compete.
“I can’t expect some of our smaller contractors to be bidding for projects which are 35-40 million US dollars. Procurement has been excellent on this with the Education people looking to design the tender process that allows us to have sub-contracting. Certainly, in the case of the House of Assembly, which is out on tender – I don’t want to presume anything – but I would be very surprised if is not a local company.”
