The Executive Chairman of the Disaster Reconstruction Authority (DRA) Alex Storr visited the island of Grand Bahama this week where he gave members of the media an update on the ongoing police investigations, home repairs and general operations at the DRA.
Storr said almost every facet of the operations of the DRA had to be rebuilt. He also responded to comments made by Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Michael Pintard lambasting the government for their home repair efforts. “The Opposition, they just playing politics. We found millions of dollars, about $40 million spent and most of that was done on debris management while people are still complaining that they haven’t had repairs completed. You would have somebody that had thirty to forty thousand dollars in damage done to their house was given five thousand, seventy five hundred dollars to repair their house. So you can see its inadequate,” Storr said.
The Executive Chairman explained the initiatives that they Authority have undertaken to save money since assuming office. He said, “one example would be the demurrage fees. We met nearly $1 million in demurrage fees for containers that were just sitting on a vacant lot in Abaco. We were able to clear those trailers, get them back to the shipper and negotiate a settlement where we didn’t have to pay the full million dollars in fees, that’s one example.”
Storr also mentioned that donor confidence is an issue due to the mismanagement of the former administration.
