Ministers move into new government building

Things are shaping up at the new government administration building. Photo Today / Hilbert Haar

GREAT BAY – Right on time before the elections, the Council of Ministers will move into the new government administration building on Pond Island tomorrow. The opening ceremony is scheduled for 10 a.m.

Election stunt or not, with the move the building that was ready for occupation in 2008 will finally get its first occupants. The offices of the ministers and their staff are on the fourth floor.

On the ground floor, the entrance hall has been neatly tiled and yesterday workers were still busy putting together the reception desk.

Hans de Bruijne, the project coordinator for social and health insurance agency SZV, said that the remaining floors will be completed within the next couple of months. “We want to be out of here by December 1,” he said.

Prime Minister William Marlin, who once coined the phrase “white elephant with the green hat” as the name for the building, said yesterday that the computers in the offices of the ministers in the old building have been disconnected and that documents have been put in boxes.

Moving everything onto the fourth floor of the building on Pond Island began yesterday.

“The only occupants of the building on Friday will be the Council of Ministers and their support staff,” Marlin said. “Next the finance department will move onto the ground floor. There is a plan in place for moving the other departments.”