…Min Lawrence unaware of rental of Princess St drug bond
…says Kingston, Diamond bonds to be completed next year

WITH the rental of the controversial Sussex Street Bond now pinned to the past, Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence has provided information on other rentals being undertaken by the ministry and their purposes.

Prior to revealing these, however, she answered the lingering questions of Opposition Member of Parliament (MP), Dr. Frank Anthony on the Sussex Street Bond during the consideration of the Budget 2019 estimates last week.

Dr. Anthony had queried about the ministry’s activities at the location but Lawrence responded that it is public knowledge the Public Health Ministry is no longer in a rental agreement with the Sussex Street Bond.

Lawrence had stated earlier in 2018—and kept her promise—that by the end of this year, the controversial Sussex Street Bond which cost the ministry millions of dollars for rental would be no more.

The bond was rented by the ministry to house a CT scan machine as the expensive piece of equipment requires stringent specifications for storage.
Prior to being terminated, the agreement saw the ministry paying $12.5M in rent from July 2016 to December 2018.

With the allocations provided in the 2019 budget, the ministry will complete the construction of its own state-of-the-art bonds at Kingston and Diamond, eventually ceasing, generally, the rental of bonds for the storage of drugs.

As of September 2018, the $250M drug bond at Kingston was 65 per cent completed and “way ahead” of schedule.

Moving past the particular rental, Dr. Anthony had also laid questions in the Committee of Supply about a particular “Princess Street warehouse”.
However, Lawrence stated that she has no knowledge of such a building being rented by the ministry.

The two also spoke on the ministry’s Ocean View Hotel storage.
Asked to state the cost for the rental of rooms at the building, Lawrence was please to notify the sitting that the company extended its social responsibility by offering the ministry a space to keep some of its supply items free of cost.
Dr. Anthony then queried whether the rooms there meet certain standards for the holding the items.

Lawrence confirmed the same and clarified further that contrary to the opposition’s belief, there were no damages incurred to the items stored at the location in question.
She then provided a detailed list of the buildings being rented by the ministry.
Buildings being rented to house the Cuban Medical Brigade include three two- story buildings at the 114 Duke Street, Kingston at the cost of $260,00 per month; a building at 21 Craig Street, Campbellville for $600,000 and another in Herstelling at $90,000.
Another house in Atlantic Gardens is serving as the home of the Cuban doctors and their coordinator at $570,000

Meanwhile, a one-story building is being rented in New Amsterdam for nurses in the region undergoing training at $190,000; another in the same town for nursing students at $260,000 and at Silverbali Street, Linden to house the same from the interior at $240,000.
The ministry is also renting a three-story building at 217 Lamaha Street, Cummingsburg at $1.5M; a two-story building at Fort Street, Kingston at $25,000; and a five-story building at 126 Barrack Street, Kingston for the National Industry & Commercial Investment Ltd (NICL), the old Citizen Bank Building at $4.7M per month.

In 2019, the sum of $165M current expenditure has been approved for the ministry for the rental of buildings regarding policy development and administration; $2M for disease control; $44M for regional and clinical services and $16M for health sciences education.