WILLEMSTAD - The parliament has approved additional funds for the parliamentary inquiry into the construction of a new hospital in Otrobanda (HNO) and its preparations. The money will be made available in a budget-neutral manner from the parliament's own budget.
These funds will cover the cost of the "process description" of the inquiry, conducted by Deloitte. The bill for this work was still outstanding.
The Curaçao parliament has also approved a proposal to extend the deadline for the completion of the final report of the parliamentary inquiry committee by two months. This extension will incur additional costs of 66,000 guilders.
Inquiry chairman Eduard Braam explained that the committee had a budget of approximately 660,000 guilders to work with. The investigation, led by scientists and support staff, has taken three years to cover all aspects related to the construction of the new hospital.
The work was supposed to be completed by the end of May, but it needs to be extended by two months due to additional documents received during the investigation, which have been decided to be included. There were also two extra closed hearings that had to be scheduled, as well as disputes between Berenschot and Ballast Nedam that awaited resolution.
The final report of the inquiry committee is now expected on July 4.