Building identified for GGMC “condemned”, likely to be “pulled down”

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2015, 12:59 by GxMedia

The building located at the corner of Princess and High Streets, Werk-en-Rust, Georgetown.

An incomplete building that was earmarked to ease cramped working conditions being experienced by staff of the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) has been condemned and would possibly be demolished.

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Minister of Governance, Raphael Trotman made the announcement in response to questions by People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPPC) frontbencher, Odinga Lumumba during consideration of the estimates of expenditure for the 2015 National Budget.

When Lumumba asked why no money had been set aside for the rehabilitation of the building located at 44 High Street, Werk-en-Rust—the former location of the now defunct Guyana Broadcasting Corporation’s Broadcasting House— Trotman told the House that that was so “because the building has been condemned as being unfit for human habitation and that is why GGMC officials are refusing to enter into it.”

“The building is in such poor state that it must be pulled down in its entirety, that they feel that they were robbed,” he said.

Trotman, who is responsible for Natural Resources and the Environment, said a final decision would be made after GGMC shortly receives a “final assessment from a structural engineer.” He said the building could not be tiled because the weight would cause the floors to collapse.”

A preliminary assessment of a pressure test shows that the building can only bear 35 pounds per square inch instead of the required 50 pounds.

GGMC was handed the building on which more than GUY$120 million have been already spent in a shady construction deal. Authorities had said that fixing the building to the required standards would cost another GUY$600 million.