Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I believe it was about three or four days ago when the question first came up on this particular subject. At that time, I responded that Public Works reviewed all of the options. We had our meetings with the client department. We had meetings with the manager and the contractor. We do not have any options left as to how we can possibly reduce costs of this project and stay within budget.
Public Works has recommended to Cabinet that we suspend BIP in an effort to try and meet the budget. We believe that by opening or broadening the field for bidders, we may get better bids than we had been receiving in the past. That would help us to meet the budget.
Public Works recommended to Cabinet that we consider suspending the BIP for this particular project only. We did not expect it to be applied to any other project. We did it with the thought that in the past, Public Works has always been directed to try all options to stay within budget before we come forward with any suggestions for supplementary appropriations on projects. We were responding to directions from the committees and from the Assembly in that we have to try all options in reducing costs before we can be expected to come forward with supplementary appropriations. Thank you.