Minister Duguid, Who Are the Owners of EWBSB?

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The country continues to be embroiled and pitched forked from one issue to the next; transitioning to a republic, pandemic, tanking economy, DLP resurrection, National Insurance Fund (blogmaster’s pick)…

The latest issue choking public conversation-feeds is veteran journalist David Ellis answering the call up to national duty to serve in the role as Covid 19 Public Advisor. The blogmaster has no problem with decisions made by individuals as it affects career and livelihood. Although it is regrettable the single journalist who stands tall in the local arena was first put out to pasture because of company policy, followed by his right to make a decision to leave the profession- he hosted popular talk show 2-days weekly- to serve in his new role. Let us hope for the sake of Barbados he is successful in helping the country navigate the Covid 19 challenge.

Ellis known to ask searching questions of public officials will be missed as it pertains to government’s recent decision to import 150 prefab houses from China. Peter Wickham hosted Minister Duguid last week to discuss the matter and more questions were created than answered from the exercise. When Mr. Ellis called the show to ask more relevant questions, it seems preference was given to reading messages from WhatsAppers.

It has been reported a local company East West Buildings Solutions Barbados promised to complete the setup of the prefab houses within 42 days. This government promised to be transparent therefore Minister William Duguid should be able to answer a few reasonable questions.

  1. Who are the directors (beneficial owners) of East West Building Solutions Barbados?
  2. Usually Mark Maloney and Bjorn Bjerkhamn are on the same page, this time both have been reported to be singing from different hymn sheets. What is different this time around?
  3. Why was Maloney not asked by traditional media if he has been(will be) contracted to supply services and materials as part of the physical preparation for setup of the Chinese prefab houses?

The taxpayers deserve to know.

The BU community is free to add questions or share information to enlighten an unknowing public.

251 thoughts on “Minister Duguid, Who Are the Owners of EWBSB?”


  1. David
    Interpret it how you wish. Am I not entitled to my opinions, especially given they are based on facts? I look forward to hearing State rather than Crown lands as part of our vernacular. You know very well I am no insider etc so I often marvel at the questions you pose to me.🤭

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  2. Our BU commentators should really be ashamed of themselves. Mark Maloney is our island’s first BLACK business tycoon. And what are they doing on BU? Condemn him like a criminal. No wonder we still don’t have enough black entrepreneurs.

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  4. @ David

    So based on the above snipet of Info you supplied these houses working out at roughly $150 a sq ft. When we add land and the cement foundation base to that what is the final cost then? You can’t make a statement like that and not tell us in detail what the figure includes. From what I have read over the last few days it seems the basic difference between these houses and what we would build now Is that instead of 2×4 pine for the uprights and floor plates, along with the roof frame, steel is used instead. This is nothing Structural Systems could not do and let our local guys then put on the outer cement boards. The only difference here is that they use bolts and nuts instead of dry wall screws our guys would use now with the pine.

    There is no rocket science involved here that our guys could not handle. If you could buy a steel shed from Carter or miss ram and get it put up wunna could assemeble these houses. Our people are not fools and have built some great properties here for all income groups.

    This ain’t about no politics now this is about having faith in we own, especially when we have all the equipment and steel works here on the island already. Bizzy maybe you should build one up Cane Garden in the yard and show them how long it would take and what the final cost would be.

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    • @John A

      From listening to Duguid it is about government unbelieving local artisans are available to deliver all 500 hundred houses in the timeframe required.


  5. “Temporary? Woman go rest yuhself and stop talking foolishness. 🤣🤣”

    so it’s permanent housing? good to know, i could swear it was sold to the public as temporary…hope that don’t return to bite you…like Maloney is right now..

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  6. @WURA-War-on-U September 20, 2021 3:30 PM “Mia gotta go, enuff is enuff…that’s the popular sentiment among the BLACK VOTERS who PUT HER THERE.”

    Can you please post the link to the survey which has led you to this conclusion.

    Thanks.

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  7. You’re too foolish, the meaning of temporary housing got you confused. I guess the PV temporary too. 🤣 Maloney bite me? Hahaaaaaa! Yuh got the wrong body mi dear.🤣🤣

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  8. @ David

    And what has he based that conclusion on my friend? Has he a document that has confirmed this? Has he contracted a leading QS firm to come to this conclusion?.if so please share the document.

    Yesterday in the press the PM stated the houses were ordered a month ago and should reach here by independence. So in other words over 3 months in total. So how many houses could a consortium of local builders erect with Sctructural supplying the steel structures and a consortium of all of the concrete manufactures and preconco supplying the concrete work and floor slabs?

    All a bunch of excuses to a desired end which have been backed by no QS reports or consideration to our local companies. And for what or more accurately for whom?

    Anyhow whats done in the dark always comes to the light. I vote for them caused I did want the rid of Sinkler and he band, but I ain’t happy at all with this big foot move by this group neither!

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  9. @ John A who wrote ” I vote for them cause I did want the rid of Sinkler ”

    da fuh lick yuh.

    How yuh like muh Bajan lingo?

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  12. Not laughing John A, just concerned with the very high daily number of new covid cases.

    Isolating families may become an option.

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  13. @ John A September 20, 2021 7:36 PM

    So now Bizzy Williams is supposed to fix it? Kind of ironic after the mob demonised our businessmen so much last year at the Nelson riots.

    Our honourable government is most likely fed up with the Coverley debacle and other failed projects with huts for 250,000 USD. Now it’s up to the Chinese to fix it.

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  14. “Can you please post the link to the survey which has led you to this conclusion.”

    you need to get out some more, go on other platforms..where thousands go to .discourse with other locals about current affairs on the island, they have formed groups with thousands of participants, i check them out once in a while, they can be found everywhere….not everything is archived as a link, check out the live groups…

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  16. TheoG: It is somewhat surprising that after numerous discussions and promises of transparency we find ourselves with an administration that does public businesses in complete secrecy

    Enuff: Care to tell us where in Canada one can find info on the beneficiary owners of companies awarded government contracts? Thanks.

    David: @enuff
    You are saying the public read taxpayers do not have the right to know who is EWBSB

    Enuff: Stop trying to put words in my mouth. Thanks
    +++++++++++++

    BU is not a Court Room but I venture to say that it is a good thing that “Enuff” is not in the Witness Box

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  17. Worthy of reposting
    “We need to know the principals behind EWBSB though.”

    Only if the sh*t hits the fan will we be informed.

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  19. The Maloney Scammed story has knocked this one clean out of the park. It confirms what the blogmaster has known for a long time- the inability of Barbadians to process/prosecute multiple issues at the same time.

    WHO ARE THE PRINICIPALS OF EWBSB.

    Note the political opposition is happy to hold press conferences on the Maloney matter because of the political mileage opportunity .

    Gone but not forgotten.

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  20. We have evaluated EWBSB on a 0-10 scale and gAve this a rating of 6

    SAFE
    0- safe
    1 – 4 probably safe
    5 insufficient information to classify as safe

    USE CAUTION
    6 insufficient information on activity, but some bad actors (politicians) involved.

    SCAM ZONE
    7 fools and moneY parted
    8 hold wallet with both hands
    9 survival of the smartest
    10 – forget about it. Yuh money gone.

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  21. Pingback: Waste of an Unprecedented Mandate | Barbados Underground


  22. Structural: We can build steel houses

    By Sheria Brathwaite sheriabrathwaite@nationnews.com

    A steel frame specialist working in Barbados is convinced his company can build steel frame houses like the ones which will be imported from China by the Government.
    Metal production manager at Structural Systems, Mark Hinkson, is not happy that local companies did not get the opportunity to play a greater role in Government’s response programme to assist people whose homes were lost or severely damaged during the passing of Hurricane Elsa in July.
    He told the Weekend Nation that local steel frame companies had the capacity to take on major national projects and therefore consideration should have been given to them for this undertaking.
    Hinkson was responding to Government’s decision to import 150 prefabricated houses from China in a $29 million partnership with East West Building Solutions (Barbados).
    “There are a number of factors we have to look at [as to why local steel frame companies] weren’t considered,” he said. “If the time frame needed for all the houses to be done by December, we probably couldn’t have got that completed because of material availability on the island.
    “But the decision was made so fast, it didn’t give local contractors time to put forward a proposal. It was just a matter of coming to us and giving us the opportunity to be a part of the discussions. Government could have checked to see how much material we had in stock and based on that find out how many houses we could have produced from that within their timeframe and at least let us get some of the work and then the balance come from China.”
    Hinkson said if local steel frame companies were contracted, there could have been a trickle-down effect and more people could have gained employment.
    “It is sad, because the Minister (of Housing, Lands and Maintenance Dr William Duguid) knows how things work in Barbados. We only stock a certain amount of inventory. As you know we are the most eastern of all the Caribbean islands and in order to ship material here, the time is pretty lengthy.
    “We bring steel material from the UK (United Kingdom), which is the highest grade and it is produced in a similar environment to ours, a salt environment. It takes four to six weeks to get here, providing the material is in stock.
    “We don’t normally stock material to build 100 houses at a time. Had we known about it earlier, we would have gladly brought in all the materials on island where we could have put up all the steel frames and all the small local contractors could get involved to do the cladding, the plumbing and electrical installations. So, in other words, pieces of the pie would have been shared throughout Barbados.”
    Hinkson said there were a lot of unknowns about the houses being imported, adding that like other players in the sector, he was playing a wait-and-see game with regards to how Government’s plan unfolds.
    “We haven’t seen a drawing of what the houses would look like in terms of the foot plan. We don’t know if all the houses are coming one time, if ten or 15 are coming as a trial run; we have to wait and see.”
    Two of the buildings that Structural Systems built using steel frame technology in recent times are the St Joseph Outpatient Clinic and the St Andrew Outpatient Clinic.
    Late August, Duguid announced Government’s plan to import single houses, quads and duplexes from China during his contributions to the House of Assembly.
    The minimum size of a single house would be 700 square feet at a cost of $100 000. Local artisans will be used to construct the foundations.
    Duguid said recently he was standing behind the decision to import the houses as they were “good and sound”, and not inferior to the steel frame houses built in Barbados.
    He made these comments following criticisms by the president of Barbados Association of Professional Engineers, Trevor Browne, who questioned if the houses met the local building code requirements and if they were durable enough to endure the island’s conditions.

    Source: Nation

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  23. Uncertainty over arrival of Chinese houses

    UNCERTAINTY SURROUNDS whether the much anticipated pre-fab houses which Government ordered from China have actually arrived.
    Informed sources told the DAILY NATION that the houses arrived at the Bridgetown Port last Thursday but were still in containers there, while plans were under way with the National Housing Corporation about the assembling process.
    However, when contacted yesterday, Minister of Housing Dr William Duguid said he was not aware that the houses had landed.
    “The houses are not here yet. They are close but I have not had a report that they arrived at the port yet,” he stated.
    He confirmed though that he met with contractors last week to arrange the setting up of the houses.
    Multiple sources, including contractors, told the DAILY NATION that they were informed that the houses were here.
    Opted out
    “We had a meeting last Friday at Ilaro Court with the Prime Minister and Minister Duguid and we were told that the houses were here. The meeting was to determine who would build the foundations and who would assemble the houses. Some of the contractors who were present opted out. They complained
    that the money being offered to assemble the houses was too low,” a contractor revealed.
    The 150 emergency houses are replacements for some of the 2000 Barbadians whose homes were destroyed during the passage of Hurricane Elsa in July. It is supposed to take six weeks to assemble them.
    Government decided to import the prefab houses because it was taking contractors too long to rebuild the homes, but some contractors charged that this was not true.
    Chinese personnel will teach the local contractors how to assemble the houses which are made from structural steel. (MB)


    Source: Nation

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