A government minister has disputed a claim that the new National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) already needs an $80 million upgrade.The Centre was opened in November last year with great fanfare by Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
Manning said there were many "doubting Thomases" who never believed that the country could such a "magnificent structure" and slammed critics who "were upset that Government refuses to be part what he called a "lynch mob" out to get UDeCOTT and its executive chairman at the time, Calder Hart.
Read the story: Manning opens $480M Academy; praises Hart, UDeCOTT
Last week, a report attributed to interim president of the Artistes Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT), Rubadiri Victor stated that the centre has major defects and it would take at least $80 million to correct the problems.
But Culture minister Marlene McDonald told reporters Tuesday the report is "scandalous".She accused the media of irresponsible reporting, noting that the media should have at least contacted her ministry or UDeCOTT to verify the information before publishing a story.
McDonald said NAPA is currently in what she called a "soft testing" period, which would last up to up to six months.
She was unable to say how much it would cost to make any adjustments to the $480 million structure built by the Shanghai Construction company with UDeCOTT managing the project.
However she challenged the $80 million figure given by the interim president of the Artistes Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT), Rubadiri Victor.
Hayden Paul, chief construction engineer at UDeCOTT, disputed claims made by Victor, noting that NAPA was well-researched, documented and properly looked at by professionals in UDeCOTT. He called Victor's concerns "salacious nonsense" against the construction of the academy.
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