By Clint Chan Tack Friday, November 6 2009

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ACADEMY OF PERFORMING ARTS: Workers are caught putting the finishing touches to the front of the National Academy of Performing Arts - the centre-pie...

HOSTING the Fifth Summit of the Americas and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Trinidad and Tobago this year could cost the Government at least $700 million.

Minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne made this disclosure at yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning previously said Government had allocated a total of $625 million to host the two conferences.

Browne, the chairman of the inter-ministerial committee for the Summit and CHOGM, said a total of $505 million has been spent to host the Fifth Summit in April. He indicated that while initial estimates put the CHOGM’s budget at $265 million “we are trying to keep it down to $235 million.”

Browne said while variations in the CHOGM’s budget could arise due to unforeseen circumstances, Government had learnt lessons from the Summit which would help to address such matters if they occur.

Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert announced that the underground drains in Port-of- Spain will be de-silted at a cost of $5.5 million over the next two weeks in order to reduce the possibility of street flooding in the city during the CHOGM.

Noting that a similar exercise was done in March and one year ago with at least 100 tonnes of debris being removed from the drains, Imbert said it made “no sense” to be spending this kind of money on a regular basis to clear the drains. He attributed their clogging in part to construction activity in the city. Stating that the completion of construction on the Government Campus Plaza, Education Ministry Tower and Port-of-Spain Academy for the Performing Arts should see the end of major construction activity within downtown PoS, Imbert was confident that the “broader issues” which contribute to flooding would be dealt with more appropriately then. All of these projects are being managed by Udecott.

The PoS Academy, which will host the opening ceremony for CHOGM, will be officially opened on Monday at 5 pm.