The Roads, Bridges and General Services Authority (Bragsa) is expected to spend in excess of approximately 22 million dollars on the cleanup effort in the Southern Grenadines.
Speaking on the Issue At Hand program on Sunday, Prime Minister Dr Gonsalves said Bragsa is going to need approximately 300 people engaged in the cleanup effort and encouraged “able bodied men and women” to be part of the cleanup campaign on Union Island.
He said that BRAGSA will be offering 200 EC dollars per day.
“Let me just say, in order to get persons to do this, and to come and let us do it very quickly, Bragsa is paying a wage plus an allowance with food, and it’s a hard area in the current circumstances, $200 EC a day. It’s a lot of money, and given the intensive nature of this, and we can’t penny pinch on it, or we can’t penny pinch on anything. We have to be prudent, but we can’t be prudent to the point where we are silly in being austere and prolong the period for cleaning up, for recovery and reconstruction.
We have to do it in the fastest possible way. We know it’s going to be some time, but we have to work with great urgency at every phase of this process.” The Prime Minister said.
BRAGSA will be offering 200 EC dollars per day. According to a release from the API, the EC$200 per day is broken down as follows; US$50 or EC$135 per day take home for each worker. The other EC$65 is for the contractor to cover NIS and Food. Prime Minister Gonsalves said though it is an expensive venture, it must be done.
Bragsa has awarded three contracts to Hutchinson, Derrick Charles and John Greaves to handle the cleanup campaign on Union Island. Greaves will mainly be responsible for cleaning Government facilities, including schools and state offices.
