WRONG FENCE: $200K stting in parking lot six years

Six years after tax-payers’ money was used to buy a fence to replace the one currently at Her Majesty’s Prison, the said fence has been sitting in a Road Town parking lot because it is said to be inappropriate.

The cost of the fence is $200,000, according to Jovita Scatliffe, Finance and Planning Officer at the Ministry of Education, which has responsibility for the prison.

Scatliffe recently told the Standing Finance Committee of the House of Assembly that a ‘contractor received the monies to purchase the fence, and it was delivered to them’.

The name of the contractor who made the purchase was not mentioned in the Standing Finance Committee report, which was made public days ago.

Minister responsible for prison Myron Walwyn, in the meantime, told the parliamentary committee that ‘the notion of the fence being the wrong fence was determined before 2011’ when his National Democratic Party government took office.

Walwyn also suggested that he had read the files relating the fence in question. The parliamentary committee paraphrased him as saying: “Upon reading the files, one would see that advice was given that the fence was not the correct fence.”

The issue in relation to the fence surfaced after then Leader of the Opposition Julian Fraser questioned why the current fence at Her Majesty’s Prison was not replaced although funds had been provided.

Fraser added that the National Security Council, years ago, requested that the current fence be replaced because it was ‘not appropriate’ for security reasons.

However, the current Superintendent of Prisons David Foot told the Standing Finance Committee that he does not think there is any need to replace the long existing fence. He however noted that additions could be made to the fence to make it more secure.

Foot was appointed Superintendent of Prisons in 2013.

Fahie sheds light on prison fence; chides Walwyn