RETROFIT SHOCKER

Past president of the Incorporated Masterbuilders Association of Jamaica Carvel Stewart has raised concern about the hefty expenditure to retrofit a leased property in Mandeville, Manchester, for tax services.

Commissioner General Ainsley Powell revealed on Tuesday that the Tax Administration Jamaica (TAJ) will spend nearly $1 billion to retrofit the building in Mandeville that it leased more than three years ago but has not yet been occupied. The agency blames procurement issues for the delay.

In a report by the Auditor General’s Department, which was tabled in Parliament in March, it was highlighted that TAJ spent $357 million up to August 2023 to lease the Mandeville property.

On Tuesday, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was informed that the TAJ has spent an additional $80 million to date for leasing the building. It now moves the total sum for leasing an unoccupied property to $451 million in little more than three years.

“First of all, I must express shock at the level of expenditure. I would have to believe and I am convinced that $1.45 billion would have enabled us to build a fit-for-purpose building that the Tax Administration could have gone into and may have gone into by now, considering that the $450 million has been spent over the last three years,” Stewart said in a Gleaner interview.

“Let’s say we had started the process at that time, it could have built, in my opinion, again, a fit-for-purpose building to enable the Tax Administration to collect the taxes,” he added.

The deadline for contractors to submit bids for retrofitting works on the Mandeville building ends today.

Asked if a cost-benefit analysis was carried out to determine whether it was better for the Government to construct its own building, given the estimated $1.5 billion – and climbing – cost to lease and retrofit, Powell indicated that his agency explored other options, but they turned out to be more costly.

“When we started out, we had actually pursued the acquisition of property, which we were not able to find suitable property within the confines of Mandeville,” Powell said, adding that locations outside of the town would cost taxpayers increased costs for transportation.

The TAJ boss said the building in Mandeville will be opened to the public by September 2025.

Another property leased by TAJ in Annotto Bay, St Mary, which it is also yet to occupy, has now cost taxpayers $23 million. Up to August, last year, the TAJ had spent $15 million on the unoccupied building in Annotto Bay.

Powell told members of the PAC that it will cost the agency $30 million to retrofit the Annotto Bay building. He said this facility will be opened to the public by September this year.

edmond.campbell@gleanerjm.com