Despite the City Engineer having issued a cease-work order to the contractor building the CARICOM Head-quarters, work is still going on at the site.
The City Engineer's department of the Mayor & City Council (M&CC) issued the order to the contractor following a decision taken by the council at its last statutory meeting on October 14. This was because the plans for the building had not been approved. A visit to the site by Stabroek News yesterday found workers feverishly continuing work while Deputy Mayor Robert Williams said the M&CC is under the impression that all work has stopped.
Williams speaking to Stabroek News yesterday said that no owner of a property is exempted from approval by the City Engineer's Department in accordance with the building by-laws. In essence, Williams said no one can construct any property without written approval from the Engineer Department in accordance with the George-town Building By-laws, Chapter 28:10, sections three and four.
Section 3 of the law states: "No person shall commence any building operations in the city unless he has given notice in writing of his intention so to do to the City Engineer on a form provided by the council for that purpose and otherwise complies with the provisions of these by-laws."
According to Section 4 (1): "No person shall erect a new building or alter or add to any existing building or execute any structural work to any building unless he shall lay over with such notice a plan of the new building or of the alterations or additions to the existing building or of the structural work for approval by the City Engineer."
According to Williams as soon as work commenced at the site the council had written the government informing it that there was need for approval before the building could be erected. He said it received a reply informing it that the authorities were under the impression that because CARICOM is a diplomatic institution it was exempted from seeking approval before building.
"But this is not so," Williams said disclosing that all the embassies sought written approval from the City Engineer's Department before they commenced building.
He said it was at the statutory meeting of the council that the council decided that a cease order should be issued until the necessary approval was granted.
Williams said after the order was issued officials from the Ministry of Works met with officials from the City Engineer's Department and the matter was discussed.
Stabroek News contacted the Public Relations Officer of the ministry, Ajay Baksh for a comment on the issue and he promised to reply after he had received details. But up to late yesterday afternoon there was no response from him.
He did say the ministry as a representative of the government, in an effort to resolve the difficulties had submitted the necessary plan for approval from the department.
But Williams said the papers would take some time to process since the headquarters is a large building. The documents would also have to be forwarded to the Ministry of Housing & Water and the public health department for their approval.
This process would be lengthy, Williams said, stating that it would take weeks before everything is sorted out.
But in an effort to fast track the process taking into consideration that the headquarters is of regional interest, Williams said that council, might be able to say go ahead with the foundation works.