Cabinet rescinds Palm Grove contract to Meridian Construction
Cabinet has cancelled its decision to award a contract to Meridian Construction Company for the Palm Grove Shopping Centre Redevelopment project.
This decision came from the June 15 Cabinet meeting.
A post-meeting statement published on Thursday stated: “Cabinet decided to rescind the decision to award a contract to Meridian Construction Company for the design, finance and the build of the Palm Grove Shopping Centre Redevelopment from their own funds, subject to their agreement with the Government of the Virgin Islands, with respect to existing leases of the Palm Grove Shopping Centre; and that a new tender process be initiated”.
The executive body has not offered any reasoning behind the recension of the offer or the value of the contract that was awarded to the local construction firm.
The Palm Grove centre was demolished in August 2018 after authorities labelled it unsafe. The hurricanes of 2017 drove tenants out of the building as the old structure was weakened.
The government then decided there would be a public-private partnership with investors to undertake the redevelopment of the shopping centre in Road Town.
It had also decided that only BVI local or a Belonger of the territory would be eligible to be awarded the contract for the shopping centre’s reconstruction.
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This had to be a bad deal that the head coach made
Nah, Meridian is not one of the favoured government contractors because its owners are not relatives or cronies of the government members.
Could it be that someone didn’t want the Governor to review the contract?
Come on, I’ll bet you anything!
I don’t think public funds should be used for that project. If Tenants were insured they will have some insurance money and get together and rebuilt together.
for now until some type of development commences.
So now what do we have to pay for not going through with this?
Ludicrous statement – the building OWNER should have the insurance, not the tenants. It’s like saying a lodger should pay to rebuild their landlords house if the walls fall down…
Just another example of how the BVI sees accountability…
Normal practice is that the landlord pays the insurance then charges the tenants pro rata.
@Concerned, The government was responsible for the insurance on the building, from what I understand they didn’t keep up the insurance.
That building was not a Government owned building
Wrong! The Government or rather a statutory corporation of the Government was the owner of the building.
The Units are registered in individual persons name not in Government name.
@Insurance, So tell us who owned the building, you shouldn’t things you don’t know about.
Hello author(s) of this article, I don’t think the Cabinet revised the text (which would have been a recension). The term you should have used is “RESCISSION or RESCINDED” (which means revocation or cancellation when applied to contractual agreements or a legislative reduction in an already passed budget).
Rewritten as follows:
“The executive body has not offered any reasoning behind the “rescission” of the offer or the value of the contract that was awarded to the local construction firm.”
A recension of or to a contract is “modification”. The contract was not modified it was cancelled based on what you the author stated in the article.
Just some constructive thoughts. In the end, I still prefer reading the online news from afar on your website over others.
v/s BVI Belonger
Meridian should sue
Turn this space into a PUBLIC Plaza. Stop polluting Road Town with 3rd world shops.
Turn it into a park where children and Families can visit.
Your average man would rather a Lagos style feel..chaotic.. random.. corrupt.That’s were we’re heading..classy.
So again the contract goes to one of the locals. Only stipulation of the changes. As a tax payer why does it not go the best deal for the tax payers money and also the most qualified company. This is the same old games look after our own and not best value for the tax payers money.
It will over run, go over budget and we will be picking up the millions again. This cycle must end.
This most likely was one of those kickback projects to fund the next election, which they are afraid to go through with now the Governor is watching. Keep them on their toes Your Excellency.