… While NEMO used $1.5 million for flood relief
At this afternoon’s conference, Minister of NEMO Melvin Hulse gave a rundown of how his ministry spent the one point five million dollars.
Melvin Hulse, Minister of NEMO
“There was repair of homes, installation of the structure—particularly the framework structure involving the floors and the ceilings—lifting of homes; wherever possible it was done six feet high with cement and complete pillars, and also the building of new homes. At the end of the day we ended up doing—and I will break it down more in details afterwards—at the end of the day we ended up doing forty of them in the Cayo District, fifty of them in the Belize District, two hundred and forty in Orange Walk District and thirty in Corozal district. What we did, NEMO along with its mitigation officer who is also an engineer went several times, inspected every house, took pictures of every home, had the names of the families involved—wife, husband, pikney; everybody—all that is documented in its files and whenever anything was done or completed, the household leader signed on completion of it. All the things are present in their home. Anyway, what helped us be able to achieve as much—and by the way, we noh done yet but I wah amaze yoh even more–at the end of the day when we did all this, that allowed us to get a bill of quantities to be able to understand the amount of material that would be needed. What was done then, this list was sent to all business people that produce these materials and they were asked in writing to send a bid and all these bids exist on files. Then NEMO sat down, looked at all the bills and then we were able to buy from the cheapest tenderer… well, not tenderer but the person who offered the lowest bid.”
Hulse says they also received assistance from the Mennonite communities of Pilgrimage Valley and Red Creek. The works, however, are not complete and there is still construction going on in Orange Walk, Lord’s Bank, Douglas, and Lemonal. Before transferring the funds to NEMO, G.O.B. says it first asked permission from the Venezuelan government.
