Come March next year Government will have to start repayment on a Government-to-Government concession loan from the People’s Republic of China for over one billion dollars for the construction of the Children’s Hospital in Couva although the building remains unoccupied.
And Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh says it is a commitment they will have to meet.
“We will have to pay it,” he told the T&T Guardian yesterday.
The total estimated cost of the project was $1,520,924,891.98 and was funded from three sources: the Government-to-Government concession loan from the People’s Republic of China for $1,003,000,000, pre-construction costs estimated at $53,191,981.93 which was financed locally by ANSA Merchant Bank from funds which according to the report were re-deployed from the Maracas Redesign and Restoration Project and project development costs estimated at $464,732,910.05 which were provided for in the expenditure estimates.
The loan for construction of facility agreed to by the former People’s Partnership Government and the government of China on March 15, 2013, with repayments of 31 instalments starting in March 2018 and ending in March 2033 at an interest rate of two per cent per annum.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development was given responsibility for the project and UDeCOTT was appointed as the executing agency.
Although there was a commissioning of the facility before the former government demitted office the facility has not been opened to the public because it was deemed to be incomplete. Several pieces of specialised equipment were already installed when the building was commissioned.
The 2017 Auditor General’s report said a status report was requested from both the Ministries of Health and Housing and Urban Development as at April 19, requesting information on the expected date of completion and the intended use of the facilities.
But Auditor General said at the date of the signing of the report on April 27, “no update was received. Both Ministries have denied responsibility for the project.”
Deyalsingh told the T&T Guardian that he intended to take a note to Cabinet on the Children’s Hospital, but would not say how soon that would be done.
He assured, however, that “we will operationalise the Children’s Hospital before the end of 2018.”
Deyalsingh would not say, however, if Government was still pursuing the public-private partnership model which it had been seeking for the hospital.
The project scope included a 230-bed hospital with 80 paediatric beds and 150 beds for adults, a 330-student Multi-Training Facility, central energy plant, a wastewater treatment plant, helipad, 598 car parks, drainage, landscaping and procurement of major medical equipment, furniture, security and data systems.