A full-page advertisement of Social and Health Insurances SZV in Wednesday’s newspaper announcing a tender for renovating the Administration Building’s roof raised the question: Already? After all, it’s been only six years since government moved in.
However, before that the newly-completed structure stood vacant for some eight years, because the contractor delivered a basically empty “shell” of which the interior was yet to be provided with cabling, plumbing, furnishing, equipment, etc. This prompted then National Alliance (NA) leader William Marlin to label it “the most expensive pigeon coop in the world.”
By having SZV purchase the property and lease it back to government in a deal that also involved debts to General Pension Fund APS, the necessary investments could be made to finish the job and make the office spaces usable. The roof with a surface area of 2,500 square metres to be replaced is thus about 14 years old.
That’s still not a very long time, but there was also considerable damage from Hurricane Irma in September in 2017 and settling related insurance claims took a while too. The work includes the repair of dropped ceilings, indicating these are currently not in good condition.
The positive part is that, along with several others, this six-month project to start in February offers more opportunity for the local construction industry. There is now even concern over having enough skilled labour on the island, but at least those available have favourable job prospects.
In this sense, the announced initiative to regulate gainfully employed foreigners who for whatever reason remain undocumented residents is helpful, as many of them are active in that field. Ensuring taxes and social premiums will be correctly paid on their behalf going forward would obviously be in the best general interest.
This regards a sort of a so-called “luxury problem” because the increased demand for workers indicates a continued socioeconomic recovery from both Irma and the COVID-19 pandemic. And no matter how you look at it, that’s good news.
