Campbell COST OVERRUNS of 23 per cent have pushed the cost of the Horizon Remand Centre in the former Things Jamaican building on Spanish Town Road to $442.7 million, says Information Minister Colin Campbell.
He told the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on Monday that the original contract sum for the maximum security adult centre was $314.2 million and was awarded to HDB Construction Ltd., in June and July 2000. Construction began in September of the same year.
Cabinet gave its approval for the additional expenditure ($128.5 million) to complete work on the facility which was declared officially open by Prime Minister P.J. Patterson last October. It has remained unoccupied since although it is intended to ease the severe overcrowding in the island's prisons.
The additional sums approved include $70 million owed to the contractor; $33m to design and equip kitchen, cold storage and laundry facilities; $8 million to repair an adjacent gully wall to enhance security; $12.5 million for non-construction expenses of the department of Correctional Services; and $5 million for reimbursement of non-construction utility charges.
Last week a senior official of the National Security Ministry told The Gleaner the centre was now scheduled to open by the middle of this month. However, Mr. Campbell was yesterday unable to state when the facility would be occupied.
"I don't have an actual date but these facilities are really additional facilities that are going in and as soon as they are completed...it will be occupied," he said.
Reasons given by the Information Minister for the building remaining empty months after it was opened, differ from those given by the Ministry last week that the delay was because correctional officers were undergoing special training on how to subdue violent prisoners.
The centre was built to house people who are awaiting trial. It can accommodate up to 1,024 prisoners - 944 males and 30 females.
