The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

and EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporters

BAHAMIAN workers will make up 50 percent of the construction workforce for the $268 million speciality hospital on the Perpall Tract, Health and Wellness Minister Michael Darville told the House of Assembly yesterday.

Chinese workers will make up the remaining 50 percent of workers.

Mr Darville’s announcement was welcomed by Bahamian Contractors Association president Leonard Sands as a “milestone achievement,” though Mr Sands warned that the numbers must be tracked with monthly reporting to ensure the agreement is honoured.

Dr Darville said discussions with the Chinese contractor are ongoing to increase the proportion of Bahamian workers and announced that recruitment and assessment teams from the Departments of Labour and Immigration will operate on site to register skilled Bahamians, refer qualified workers directly to the contractor and monitor compliance.

“Let me make it very clear that any violations of this agreement will result in fines to the contractor,” Dr Darville said. “Onsite training programmes will ensure knowledge transfer. Concrete batching will occur both on- and off-site to include local companies.”

He tabled documents, including the contractor’s report, engineering studies, and environmental approvals, which he said confirm compliance with environmental, financial, and engineering standards, including flood mitigation measures.

The 200-bed facility, designed primarily for women and children, is expected to take between 30 and 36 months to complete. Dr Darville said 73 percent of the project’s cost — about $195 million — will be financed by the Chinese Export-Import Bank, with the remaining 27 percent financed locally or internationally. A three-year maintenance contract will follow construction, with Bahamian teams integrated from the outset.

He said environmental consultants have already begun tagging and potting trees and plants for later transplantation.

“Today, I am pleased to report that under the supervision of the Ministry of the Environment, our project environmental consultant and her team tagged and potted various species of plants and trees for transplantation as part of the landscaping once the hospital is built,” Dr Darville said. “Next week, tractors will arrive on site to begin the land preparation. Shortly after, the foundation and vertical construction will begin.”

Addressing flooding concerns, he said engineering assessments found the project would not worsen conditions and identified long-standing drainage deficiencies to be corrected at government expense.

“In fact, it identifies longstanding deficiencies in drainage maintenance and proposes corrective works, including deepening and expanding drainage ponds, improving canal management, and having structured maintenance of drains, all to be funded by the Government of The Bahamas,” he said.

For his part, Mr Sands said the commitment to monitoring labour quotas is critical because similar workforce promises have not been kept in the past. He pointed to The Pointe project, where the China Construction America heads of agreement required a 70/30 split, but labour figures later showed 264 foreign workers to 90 Bahamians.

“For us to be 50/50, that's a significant improvement and speaks to the government starting to listen to the advocacy and cries of the Bahamian Contractors Association, where we've lamented for a long time that we need to negotiate better for more Bahamian participation in these type of projects,” Mr Sands said. “It seems to me, from that news, that they are listening. That's not happened before in the past.”

“We would recommend that monitoring and reporting monthly on the labour numbers is necessary to ensure that this agreement is kept as envisioned. Certainly, the Bahamian Contractors Association would like to participate on that monthly assessment of the site to ensure that those numbers are maintained.”