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Prison completion delayed anew to April
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Posted on Dec 01 2004
Despite the appropriation of new funds to ensure the completion of the Saipan prison project this December, technical changes in the project has pushed the completion date anew to early part of next year, according to the Department of Public Works.
The target completion date was supposed to be Dec. 15. Once the new change order becomes effective, Public Works Secretary Juan S. Reyes said the new deadline for the project’s completion would become April 15 next year. The project started sometime in 2002.
Reyes said that documents for another change order is now being routed for signature by concerned parties to allow technical changes in the project.
He said the total project cost would reach approximately $18 million—nearly a million higher than the original project cost of $17.29 million.
Reyes downplayed the new deadline extension, saying that the new Department of Corrections has not been fully staffed yet. He said the prison project is about 95-percent complete.
Initially, the construction lagged due to the government’s inability to pay its obligations to the project contractor on time.
Last July, Gov. Juan N. Babauta signed a bill into law, which partly appropriates some $3.9 million for the project’s completion. Public Law 14-19 identified CIP bond interest proceeds as source of funds to ensure the prison project’s completion. At that time, Telesource CNMI, the company contracted for the construction, said the government had been paying it on time.
The prison project is being erected on a 100,000-square-foot Susupe lot adjacent to the existing facility.
A consent decree forged by the CNMI with the U.S. Department of Justice three years ago mandated the prison project, following findings of deplorable conditions at the present jail.
The new facility will house 344 prison cells, which is expected to ease congestion at the DOC. According to Superior Court Associate Judge David Wiseman, there were cases of convicted felons who were denied entry into the DOC despite being sentenced to jail due to overcrowded conditions at the existing prison.
