HEALTH Minister Dr. Bheri Ramsaran has reiterated that the specialty hospital could not be built since its allocation was slashed from the 2013 National Budget by the combined opposition.

Minister Ramsaran was clarifying the matter in light of an article published in yesterday’s Kaieteur News, reporting that Indian company, Surendra Engineering Corporation Limited was awarded a US $19M contract for a specialty hospital but had never built one.
However, in a telephone interview with this newspaper yesterday, Health Minister Ramsaran asserted that Guyanese both at home and abroad are very aware of the fact that works on the specialty hospital could not proceed because the parliamentary opposition had cut its allocation from this year’s national budget.

Geotechnical Survey
He noted that while monies were spent, no physical structure can be seen because these monies were utilised to conduct the geotechnical survey which was necessary to decipher the best way forward for the construction of the hospital.
The minister related the situation to that of a woman having a baby, noting that for the first few months of pregnancy no one can be aware that she is pregnant by just looking at her, but nevertheless things are happening in her body.
The same way, he pointed out, when Surendra Engineering was awarded the contract for the specialty hospital, it proceeded to conduct the necessary surveys before actually starting to work on the physical structure. He highlighted that while this was being done, nothing could be seen but things were happening.
Dr. Ramsaran noted that the specialty hospital was a sizeable project and could not be built without this survey being done first. He pointed to the Olympic-sized swimming pool at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown and related that the same survey had to be done before that was constructed.
He  said that the laying of the foundation for the hospital would have been well underway by now had the administration not been sabotaged by the parliamentary opposition.
The combined opposition of A partnership for National unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC), during the consideration of the estimates under the 2013 budget in April, used the one-seat voting strength in the House to slash the $1.2B allocated for the construction of the specialty hospital at Liliendaal.
Prior to the vote, and responding to questions from the opposition benches, Dr. Ramsaran had clarified what he termed as some confusion on the part of the opposition in relation to the different aspects of the project.
He provided answers in relation to the works completed so far, indicating that the contractor hired for the site preparation, G Bovell and Sons, had been paid some $52.3M for works undertaken, while the contractor for the construction of the hospital, Surendra Engineering, had already been paid some $746M for its design and survey works undertaken.
Meanwhile, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall has said that the government has been left in a precarious legal position by the decision of the combined opposition to cut the budgetary allocation for the specialty hospital.
At a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) press conference in April, he said: “We are now in a precarious legal position, where we have a binding contract with the contractor. We have, in fact, endorsed the disbursement of an advance payment towards this project to a contractor to the tune of some US$3M, and now we are in this extremely invidious legal position, where we are unable to discharge the contractual obligations which devolve upon us under this contract.”
He also noted the blow being delivered to the nation with the Guyanese people being denied this type of facility, and emphasised that the specialty hospital is an initiative intended to benefit the health of the nation in the most fundamental way, since it would allow health care of the highest quality to be afforded to persons of all walks of life.