Immediate action would have been taken if highlighted – DREO tells commission

THE regional officials for Region Eight stated to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry that the Regional Education Officer failed to notify them about the inspection report concerning urgent safety changes at the Mahdia dormitory.

This occurred on the eighth day of public hearings for the Presidential Commission of Inquiry where Deputy Regional Executive Officer (DREO), Shawn Britton gave sworn testimony.
In February 2023, an inspection report on both the male and female dorms at Mahdia was presented to the former Regional Education Officer for the region. In this report, it was highlighted that there was an urgent need for fire safety and prevention measures to be taken to ensure the safety of students living there.
Earlier in the day, that former Regional Education Officer had told the commission that she did not read the report but presented same to the Deputy Regional Executive Officer as she handed over her office in February as she was reassigned.

Nevertheless, Britton testified that although he received the office, the education officer did not mention any specific urgent or important documents.
Against this backdrop, he mentioned that he also went through all of the documents that were left on the desk of the education officer and saw nothing of major importance, even as he highlighted that the inspection report was not there.
“This document was not part of the folder, it was not part of the handing over, none of the documents looked like this. The first time I saw this document was the day of the fire… when I received the call inquiring of this document then I started my probe to find out whether or not a document like this really existed,” he said.
To this end, he noted that he was able to get a copy of the report from the sub-officer, Ryan Scott who prepared the report as there was no trace of the document among the set the former education officer had handed over.

“Mrs Douglas said that she left the document in the office so I went down myself… and searched the office to find the document and came up with nothing. At that time, I sought the handing over statement because I’m saying something as critical as this had to be in it… but I did not see anything mentioning a report,” Britton told the commission.
Meanwhile, when asked if a report of this nature is received by his office, Britton said that actions would be taken to ensure that there are budgetary provisions to effect the recommendations highlighted in such a report.

Britton added that the regional engineer would have been called, asked to conduct a site visit and prepare a bill of quantities to ascertain whether changes could have been accommodated immediately or whether finances would have to be pulled from other projects to address this.
Meanwhile, also giving sworn testimony on Thursday was former Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Prema Roopnarine.
Roopnarine too told the commission that the fire inspection report was not brought to her attention prior to Thursday.
She told the commission that the report was an alarming one and if it was brought to her attention, she would have made contact with the Regional Executive Officer requesting an action plan to be created.

This, Roopnarine added would be an emergency and as such she stated that there are many things that can be done to see if monies could be pulled from other budgeted items or have the plan sent to the Ministry of Finance to be made part of a supplementary budgetary request.
Additionally, the Regional Executive Officer, Peter Ramotar also told the commission that he was only made aware of the report after the fire occurred in May and noted that immediate action should have been taken to address the recommendations made in this report.