There are complaints that no Family Island or International mail has left the Post Office in New Providence within the last three weeks.
These allegations persist as a result of staff not being in place to complete these tasks. Confirming this was Opposition Shadow Minister for Transport and the Member of Parliament for Englerston, Glenys Hanna- Martin who said this is another implication that the General Post Office is being mishandled.
“This is a very sad saga that we’re seeing and I see it’s being mishandled by this administration. It’s very sad and it has an impact on a critical agency in this country which is the Post Office and its operations,” she said.
The Minister of Transport with responsibility for the Post Office, Renward Wells has not addressed the media on when the Post Office is expected to be relocated.
In fact, he has given several deadlines as to when he would speak on the issue, but has not honoured them.
To that Mrs. Hanna-Martin said, “I don’t know what information he is operating from that is causing him to continuously give timelines that have failed.
“I can’t think that you’re just speaking off the top of your head saying next week, December 1st or January 1st or whatever it is.
“I’m assuming that when there’s a public interest in these matters, that when you speak to these issues, that you speak with the best information available.
“ I don’t know what information he has available that has caused him to give at least five dates that have fallen through,” she said.
Mrs. Hanna-Martin said, “I think that what he should do and what I would advise him to do is to probably sit down, get a clear understanding of what the issues are, what work must be done and to get timelines that are realistic and then without committing yourself to an actual date, do the best to inform the Bahamian people as to when they can expect postal operations to be regular.”
In January, Minister Wells advised that the relocation of the Post Office was once again delayed to February. This after the previous January 2019 deadline was not met.
That was the last date given by the Minister for the relocation.
Just two weeks ago the Opposition members of Parliament toured the site when it was revealed that the Post Office was not near completion.
Inside it was also revealed that walls were still being erected.
Opposition Leader Phillip Davis said that the PLP was concerned about the prolonged delays in the project.
Calls were made to Transport Minister Renward Wells, but no calls were returned up press time.
The government plans to lease 75,000 square feet of space for the concessionary rate of $12 per square foot or $900,000 a year.
The owners of the property have agreed to take on the $3.5 million cost to renovate the building.