St. John’s, Antigua: The poor structural design of the Hadeed-financed office complex has been blamed as the cause of employees falling ill, according to a report in the Antigua Observer.
A local contractor has come to the defence of the architects of the office complex which houses the High Court and ministries of Education, Finance, Tourism and Legal Affairs.
Last October, a probe followed when workers complained of dizziness, headaches and nausea among other symptoms, and Chief Health Inspector Lionel Michael said the problems are caused by poor air quality due to a bad building design, among other factors.
The Observer reported that the contractor, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Michael’s conclusion is unfounded. The maintenance was outsourced to independent contractors when government first moved into the office complex. That plan was soon abandoned and the job was given to the Public Works Department, the man said.
“The buildings were designed with fresh air and exhaust systems with air conditioners. It was designed that way, knowing the AC unit had to be up and running and maintained. Ever since government took over the maintenance, there has been poor maintenance, but there is also improper management by those who work there…It is a modern style of building, a style used worldwide where the building is sealed. The complex was built to international OBM standards and to meet the specific needs of the type of work that has to be done in there. But what we have seen, from time to time, is that people are not eating in the lunch room/kitchen. They are storing disinfectants and cleaning detergents in the AC room. They are storing heaps and heaps of files in there and not in the places that were designed for that and those are things that affect air quality,” the contractor said.
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