By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

STATE Minister of Works Arnold Forbes yesterday confirmed that officials were in the process of reviewing the 13 remaining Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute contracts but he could not say with certainty that all of the buildings under construction were insured.

Mr Forbes said when the review is done, the aim of the government is to ensure that every structure is fully covered by insurance.

In cases where insurance polices are reaching expiration, Mr Forbes said the government will insist on a renewal.

His comments came the same day that Agriculture Minister V Alfred Gray said the government would seek legal recourse over the BAMSI dorm that was damaged by fire on January 15. Minister of Works Philip Davis has said it will cost $5.5m to rebuild the fire-damaged dorm and reconfigure it to double occupancy from single.

This comes in the aftermath of the revelation that the $2.6m structure never had contractor’s all-risk insurance, contrary to what Mr Davis had initially told the House of Assembly on February 25.

“What we are doing is this: We are checking our records to ensure that every contract has insurance,” Mr Forbes said before heading into a Cabinet meeting. “Those contracts that have insurance that will expire very soon we want to ensure (or) even insist that they have insurance.

“We are guaranteeing that we will ensure that there are no individuals on that site who has an expired insurance or that it will expire in the near future.”

When asked if he could confirm that all of the buildings were covered by all-risk insurance, Mr Forbes said he was not sure.

“I will know when my checks are complete but from all indications we believe that there are some that are close to expiring. But again I cannot speak with surety that there are any that are not insured or close to expiring.

“Once I finish the process I will know who is who and what is what and insist that we have full insurance on every aspect of this construction to ensure that there are no incidents like the one that happened the other day.”

Meanwhile, Mr Gray said the fact that there was no insurance on the male dorm gave the government the right to take legal action.

“If there wasn’t insurance there are some legal consequences and I feel sure that that is what will happen,” he said.

“I wanted to ensure that the incident that took place would never happen again.

“I am not sure who will build it at the moment but whether or not the government has to rebuild it and take it out what is due to it from the contract is a matter for those who are negotiating to see how it works out.”

Mr Davis continues to face a firestorm of criticism over the information that he provided to the House last month.

At the time he said the building was not insured because the policy had lapsed due to negligence on the part of the contractor, Paradigm Construction President Audley Hanna.

However, last week he told Parliament that he became aware of the true situation on March 2 when he received the contractor’s file. The file proved that Mr Hanna had never provided the ministry with an insurance certificate, but instead he submitted an insurance quote from RoyalStar Assurance for six months of coverage.

This led the Free National Movement to call for Mr Davis’ resignation as minister of works. The party said Mr Davis has “misled” the House over the matter.

Meanwhile, Mr Hanna has said he will rebuild the dorm, which was set on fire by an arsonist, at no cost to the government. However he could not say where he would find the money to finance the project.