00:00We are in discussions as to what faculties will be stationed here.
00:04There was an erroneous newspaper story that we were moving the law faculty out of St. Augustine.
00:10You hear a lie? That was a lie.
00:12The declaration by Prime Minister Kamla Passat-Besessa, Senior Counsel,
00:16after she toured the UE South Debe campus where rehabilitation works are underway.
00:21Why we want to move a fully functioning law campus on the St. Augustine campus
00:26and move everybody down here? No.
00:28No. They plan to have parallel work going on at the same time.
00:33And when you apply, you can apply. I want to be on the Debe campus. I want to be in
00:36the South.
00:37No, I want to be at St. Augustine. You make the choice.
00:40And once it is economically feasible, I will make it happen. We will make it happen.
00:46The possibility of other fields of study was also mentioned.
00:51And this is not a promise that these will happen here.
00:53We are doing the feasibility of other areas to be housed here.
01:06As for expectations with regard to the next academic year,
01:12I have just said to the minister, do not ever give an exact date of doing anything.
01:19So we are proposing to try to get it done by mid-August.
01:24May the good Lord make it happen.
01:26But do not hold us to ransom if it comes the day after August, the first day in September.
01:32But we are working.
01:33The Prime Minister made an apparent reference to the former PNM administration,
01:37which the UNC and its coalition of interests defeated in the 2025 general election.
01:43There are some people held bent on stopping development in the country.
01:47For 10 years, they never halted anybody from doing any work.
01:50But I noticed so far there have been two and three attempts to frustrate the will of the people
01:56as demonstrated to the government that the people elected to govern.
02:00But we will continue to fight, we will continue to work.
02:03The UEDB campus project began under the 2010 to 2015 UNC-led government.
02:09When we demitted office in 2015, this campus was 75% complete.
02:16The opening was expected to be in 2016.
02:20Of course, none of that happened.
02:22After 2015, not open.
02:252019, as the young lady told us, was used as a COVID facility.
02:30The costs continued to rise from $499 million TT to $600 million TT dollars.
02:38No students enrolled.
02:40The Prime Minister said an assessment was done last year by a quotas,
02:44Caribbean Facilities Management Company Limited,
02:46which she said had begun the project and were able to identify what needs to be done
02:52in order to restore the campus.
02:54We have already identified funds for this project in the existing 25-26 budget.
03:01So the money is there.
03:03Minister of Finance is smiling.
03:04He was already smiling.
03:06He was looking worried.
03:07He will have to find the funds.
03:08But we identified it early.
03:10When we did last year's budget,
03:12October, I made sure that we put money in the votes
03:16to make sure that this project comes to fruition finally.
03:20The Prime Minister said that as of Monday,
03:22she was told 10 major tenders have been initiated
03:25to cover the full restoration works.
03:29Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
03:31Jewel Brown, TV6 News.
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