00:01After almost 30 years of being housed at the MTS Plaza in Aranguas, the Samwa Lavantel Regional Corporation has been
00:09asked to vacate the premises.
00:12Corporation Chairman Richard Wolcott is suspicious as to why.
00:16I'm wondering if there's any political mischief at foot, because it is so strange that on our council, the Samwa
00:24Lavantel Regional Corporation, we have a UNC alderman who sits on the MTS board also.
00:32So he sits on the council and he sits on the MTS board. And it is odd that something like
00:39this will happen.
00:40Wolcott says the corporation received the eviction notice on May 1st, indicating that they were to vacate by May 31st.
00:49Well, they said they need their premises. They need their premises for expansion, which we have no problems with.
00:56You know, but my problem is that the ministry of local government is dragging its feet on ensuring that we
01:03have proper accommodations,
01:05because we can't go out and rent a building. We have to go through the ministries.
01:10We have to get that done. And they are taking too long in doing so.
01:14Wolcott says the corporation would have identified another property which it owns and which would be suitable for its operations.
01:22However, the minister rejected their request.
01:25The Samwa Lavantel Regional Corporation, we have land that is invested in us where you have the old URP building
01:32in Mt. Cope.
01:34We, I would have told the minister at the last mayors and chairmen meeting that we would want that building
01:39because it was loaned to the URP.
01:42URP is no longer there. So we would want that building, which is ours, and we can just move in
01:46and take it.
01:46But because of goodwill, we told the minister, well, we will need that building and we can, you know, in
01:53the long run, we can use that property to build our headquarters.
01:59The minister replied to me that they have plans for that building.
02:03You know, I said, but at least give us the property so that we can park our vehicles, our staff
02:08having problems in parking their vehicles.
02:11Give us the property so that we can, our staff can park there.
02:14To date, I have not gotten a reply from the minister on that.
02:17The corporation has since put forward another potential site, which is owned by a private citizen.
02:24It's a private property. That is a building that once the Commission of State Land used to operate and they
02:31moved out quite recently, maybe about a month ago.
02:33But the building is available and we went to look at it. It is suitable for our corporation.
02:41We spoke to the ministry about it. The ministry sent two officers from the ministry of local government and also
02:47from the ministry of public administration.
02:49They all agree it is suitable for our corporation and they will get back to it.
02:55We have sent all our correspondence, everything as it related to that building.
03:01And to date, we have not heard anything from both ministries.
03:04With five days remaining until eviction, the corporation chairman is warning of the potential fallout.
03:11If the park-up is in the corporation, we will pitch them there and operate out of there.
03:15It will impact us paying staff because if we don't have anywhere to do our work, it will affect paying
03:23staff of the corporation.
03:25You know, it will affect our entire service.
03:29It will affect our scavenging pickup.
03:31It will affect our cleaning of the air, our maintenance program.
03:36It's going to affect every aspect of our operation.
03:41Vanessa Cutting, TV6 News.
03:44There is a stormtrooper.
03:46Bye-bye.
03:47On your�
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