Painted mainly in grey, the former National Bank of Anguilla building, in the centre of the island, is no longer “a white elephant” in terms of being unused or unoccupied.
Its spacious three floors are now almost completely filled by a number of Government departments and offices which have moved in over the past several months.
The most recent occupants are personnel from the Ministry of Finance who abandoned the second floor of the two-storey building on the Secretariat compound this week; the Treasury Department which moved out of the first floor there; and the nearby Inland Revenue Department. It is understood that the Customs Department, on the first floor of what was the Ministry of Finance, will now be extended across the space left by the Treasury Department.
Only the Department of Information and Broadcasting (Radio Anguilla), which has occupied the eastern section of the Ministry of Finance since 1989, has been left on the second floor. For some time now, the roof of the Ministry of Finance has been leaking all over, with the water soaking through the structure days after the rain.
Other Government offices which were moved to the former NBA building before are the Departments of Public Administration, Labour and Immigration.
In the past, the Government of Anguilla had been looking into the possibility of constructing a suitable administration building to provide accommodation for a number of ministries and departments, but lack of funds had been a major hindrance.
It is understood that the Government is hoping to acquire the former NBA building, thus achieving the original intention to have a number of key offices in one location. The centralizing of some of the important functions of Government will also better facilitate members of the public doing business there.
