Walwyn, who served within the previously governing National Democratic Party administration, has been accused of allowing the project — initially budgeted at $828,000 — to skyrocket to well over one million dollars.

According to Walwyn, it was the Cabinet who opted to divide the project into several petty contracts, work orders, and purchase orders. But while giving evidence before the Commission of Inquiry (COI) days earlier, Assistant Secretary within the ministry, Lorna Stevens, said Walwyn was advised about the threat of a cost overrun if the project was divided into small contracts.

She had further said that this discussion was had with Walwyn before the cost estimates for the overall project was sent to Cabinet for approval. But during his appearance before the COI yesterday, September 20, Walwyn said he never received any such advice.

“I am saying to you categorically, Commissioner; that was not discussed with me. And if it was discussed with me, that [Cabinet] paper would not have been [estimated] at [$828,000],” Walwyn told the COI.

He continued: “If it was discussed with the Permanent Secretary, who I know and hold in very high regard, she would not have allowed that paper to go forward fully well knowing that it would have cost that much. So, Miss Stevens would have to speak about who she spoke to with this, but there was no conversation with me. And I am saying to you categorically that it did not happen.”

I didn’t know

Walwyn further told the COI he did not appreciate at the time that splitting the wall contract among various contractors would have escalated the costs beyond the budgeted amount. He said he believed the cost would have remained the same whether one person did the work or if multiple persons did it.

“And I’ll even go further, Cabinet itself did not appreciate that that would happen either because the problem got further compounded by Cabinet. Because then, the Cabinet decided now to do it by petty contracts and work orders. So, you’ve further broken it down,” the former Minister argued.

Walwyn said he believes the kind of technical advice needed to deal with certain issues related to the project was not present within the government’s system at the time. He said this is especially so since the project was overseen by two separate ministries — the Education Ministry and the Finance Ministry.