By Ashford Peters
The official residence of the Prime Minister is a fire hazard, and the roof and guardrails pose a danger, Prime Minister Godwin Friday told lawmakers as he wrapped up the debate on the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure.
He defended the EC$1.5 million allocated to repairs of the official residence, even as Opposition Leader Ralph Gonsalves, who moved out after being voted out of office on Nov. 27, said the figure “is going to balloon”.
“I’m saying to the people of this country, when I left that house, it was liveable. It needed some repairs, but liveable,” he told lawmakers,” Gonsalves said as he debated the fiscal package on Thursday.
Gonsalves’ criticism came even as, in 2022, his government allocated EC$75,000 for “Enhancement of the Prime Minister’s Residence”, the same amount as was approved in 2021, taking the total in two years to EC$150,000.
Then, in 2023, the ULP government allocated EC$250,000 “to undertake minor works and procurement of furniture, fittings and equipment”.
There was also an EC$75,000 allocation for 2024 and EC$65,000 for 2025.
The project was expected to be completed in 2023, with an estimated overall cost of EC$437,661.
However, based on the 2025 Estimates, the total would cost about EC$437,747 by 2027.
The figures show that while EC$540,000 was allocated for “enhancement” of the Official Residence of the Prime Minister between 2022 and 2025, only EC$241,747 in total had been spent by November 2024.
Gonsalves slams $600,000 for vehicles, says three or four of them, were ‘perfectly functioning‘
Gonsalves also criticised the EC$600,000 allocated for the purchase of motor vehicles for use by the prime minister.
He said the vehicles will be imported duty-free but if the duties were to be applied, the cost would reach EC$1.3 million.
He said the vehicles he had used, three or four of them, were “perfectly functioning” and “had another couple of years going for them”.
Gonsalves, the sole candidate of the Unity Labour Party (ULP) to survive the crushing 1-14 defeat at the November polls, was the last person to live at the official residence, having served as Prime Minister from 2001 to 2025.
PM says official residence clearly uninhabitable
In his response, Friday, who led the New Democratic Party to victory, said Gonsalves was quick to criticise the enhancement of the official residence and the “so-called fleet of vehicles”.
However, unlike Gonsalves, the prime minister said the official residence was in horrible condition and clearly uninhabitable.
Friday explained that a few days after his party won the general election, he went to the Prime Minister’s Residence expecting to make “just some cosmetic” changes, such as “to paint a little bit here and put some curtains and so forth, and change some linen and some upholstery”.
However, on arrival, he saw that “it’s quite clear that the place is not in a state to move in”.
Friday said “a provisional budget” had been allocated for what was expected to be the cosmetic change but when the touring team saw the conditions of the residence, they concluded “this is not possible”.
Because of the horrible condition, the state agency BRAGSA was called in to conduct an assessment, and he anticipated it might take two or three months to complete repairs and make the official residence liveable again.
“But then they (BRAGSA) said, ‘Prime Minister, there’s the most serious problems here. I’m hearing now that all the (galvanised) sheeting on the roof has to be replaced because it is corroded, and in some places, it may actually be leaking.
“I heard now as well, the electrical system is a fire hazard, that the entire electrical system in the residence has to be replaced. I wasn’t expecting that,” Friday told lawmakers.
The prime minister further said that “the rails around the building is rotting and it’s dangerous and it’s urgent that it has to be replaced”.
He said there are other things that can be done, such as upgrading and remodelling but the decision is not for him to make, noting, “this building is a heritage building”.
“This is something that the country should preserve and be proud of,” Friday said, speaking of the official residence as a national treasure.
Security detail’s living quarters deplorable
Apart from the building that serves as the official residence, Friday mentioned the deplorable condition of a building constructed during Gonsalves’ tenure some years ago on the premises for the members of the Prime Minister’s Security Detail.
He said national security minister St. Clair Leacock, who visited the police stations across the country following the November election victory, “talked about the conditions under which the police are made or forced to live”.
Friday said it is the same kind of deplorable conditions existing at the building for police officers at the Official Residence of the Prime Minister.
“They’re sleeping in bunks, four to a room. These are things that need to be changed. I would not be comfortable sleeping in the Prime Minister’s Residence knowing that the people who are supposed to be guarding the prime minister is sleeping in those conditions,” Friday said.
Friday said, “… unfortunately, the residence has gotten to a point where it’s going to require much more” than he anticipated.
Officials hope $1.5 can cover repairs
Friday, who is also the finance minister, explained that because of so little time to prepare the budget, the staff was working overtime and it was very late when they decided to “put some funds in it”, hoping it would be sufficient to cover the repairs.
“So, they put $1.5 million there. Initially, it was less than that. But I hope that it can be done for that. I hope it can be done for less, because the state that it’s in it is going to require quite a lot of work,” he said.
He noted that he is “not the one who is making those decisions”, adding that BRAGSA is in charge of the project.
Friday said that the money being spent on the official residence is not for beautifying it for himself.
“This is ensuring that the building stays erect and that it’s safe.”
He proposed that going forward, “the repair and the maintenance of that residence, and also of Government House, the residence of the Governor General, that these matters should be dealt with either by some institution, by BRAGSA, or some special unit that says the maintenance and repairs is not up to the residents of the facility.”
Friday said the building does not belong to him or the former prime minister, who was in office for almost 25 years and lived at the official residence for over 20 of those years.
He said the state of the official residence was “upsetting”, adding, “taxpayers should not be required to pay that kind of cost”.
The prime minister said attempts will be made to get assistance “from persons who are willing to contribute towards heritage projects.”
He expressed confidence in finding sponsors who will maintain the premises “for future generations [so] we wouldn’t have a situation where it becomes in that state of disrepair.”
that former pm was behaving like a kruff look at that stove so dirty and looks unpleasnt, it really needs an upgrade, vincentians we might be poor but we dont like nastiness.