Governor's Office on Montserrat Responds to the Controversy Regarding Electrical Upgrades to its Local Properties

Electrical works are currently being conducted on the Governor's residence and offices on Montserrat. On Tuesday December 4th, former Premier of Montserrat Reuben T Meade, raised some concerns to do with the contracting of labour for these electrical upgrades via a social media post, where he stated as below: 

MNI Media reached out to the Governor's Office to ascertain the nature of these works being done, and to gather more information on the matter concerning the hiring of electrical contractors to carry out these works.

The following statement was issued by the Governor's Office in response:

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has a wide network of properties in over 170 countries around the globe and in order to help manage the maintenance of these properties the FCO has a dedicated Estates Management department. In addition to carrying out maintenance drives on FCO properties in the region and around the globe, the department is responsible for carrying out electrical tests in the region every 5 years to ensure properties electrical systems are up to UK Health & Safety standards, which the FCO applies to all its properties worldwide.

Presently all of our properties on Montserrat are in need of a range of refurbishments, including repair and replacement of certain UK-standard electrical systems and their interface with the local electrical supply. We currently have FCO contractors working alongside our local electricians to carry out this work as is normal practice at any FCO property around the world where there are no in-house maintenance staff.