Members
Parliament
Transparency

N. H. Cole Simons

1424
Speeches
165,822
Words Spoken
83
Sittings Active
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
40 words
Yes, Mr. Speaker. My supplementary is, Can the Minister confirm that over the three- year period from March [2020] to [2022] that the Government will pay in excess of $2 million for the contract that they have with Innovation group?
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
120 words
Thank you, Madam Chairman. Madam Chairman, I am just asking a question, if you will allow me before I get into the structure of the response. The Minister, first of all, I would like to commend him for sharing his brief with me. I have been here 20- something years and this is the second time it was done and …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
133 words
I do not have a brief. Okay, so, first of all, I would like to thank the Ministry of Education and the Department of Educ ation for the work that is done in preparing f or the budget. I know that it is a monumental task. I know it is not easy, and I think it is . . . …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
435 words
I know that, that is why I am saying it. The other issue that I would like to address are the comments that he made, and I am also pleased, you know, it is like . . . with Education, when you are going to redesign educ ation, it is like changing course on a big cruise ship. It will …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
94 words
Okay, that is helpful, thanks. As I said earlier, I just want to commend you on the professional development issues and the r esources committed to them. So, I just asked that one, so that is no question, just a comment. On page 27, [of] 68, and I have asked this question before, business unit 27065, how many st udents …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
117 words
No, I do not need to hear it now. I do not have many of these questions before I start, so you can answer them after I finish this. Page 35 of 68, you said Marjorie Bean Hope Academy —you were talking about the employees — you said “also included in these funds are the salaries of two groundsmen who …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
220 words
You can, if you want. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Madam Chairman, to answer the previous question, we have 7 students who are in the Hard- of-Hearing Programme and 13 st udents who are in the Visual Programme. In terms of having employees do work, it is similar to . . . our Ministry or our department has a hybrid …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
57 words
Thank you. Page 36 of 68, an IT strategy has been i mplemented to move from the distributed IT infrastruc-ture to a centralised infrastructure. Can you give us an estimate of the transition cost, the timelines in regard to delivery, and provide some details on the blueprint that will get us there? I am going to continue.
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
42 words
Thank you. And timelines . . . timelines? When do you expect to have it completed? Okay. Page 44, just a correction. The second to last sentence is that “all five middle schools” s hould be “four middle schools.” [ Inaudible interjection]
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
135 words
Okay. And page 46, you said in the second paragraph, “Mr. Chairman, the total of 2020/21 budget allocation for our middle schools is $16,507,000.” My question is, if you look in the Budget Book, that includes $2.448 [million] for T. N. Tatem Middle School. That school is closed. Can you confirm why it is included in the $16,507,000? It could …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
16 words
That is fine. Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: But it was just after the budget deadline.
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
169 words
So, it will be reduced . . . this amount, the total allocation, I think it needs to be corrected to show $14.1 million approximately for the t otal allocation for the middle schools. Because we do not want to approve in the House $16.5 million if you are only going to use the $14.1 [million], if you take out …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
11 words
In the Middle Schools section? Hon. Diallo V. S. Rabain: Yes.
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
30 words
Okay. I will come back to that later in my personal remarks. And in your statement page 59 of 68, that is the college, the initial — [ Inaudible interjection]
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
477 words
I am. The initial goal is to raise $60 million for the college, which includes a $1 million endowment. How much has the foundation raised to date? Okay, my last question from your statement, before I get into mine. I just wanted to showcase the Bermuda House of Assembly effectiveness of a budgetary committee. I see most progressive organisations have …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
45 words
Okay, I accept [that]. Okay, fine. Percentage of performance appraisals completed for schools and Department of Education staff, and there is nothing recorded in 2019. As someone in banking and finance, that demonstrates to me the i ssue that was showcased in the— [Inaudible interjection]
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
5 words
Okay, so — [Inaudible interjection]
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
101 words
—so it is a new measure. And so, that still leads me to my question, do we have . . . what do the existing performance numbers look like? Because our teachers do performance apprai sals every year; they have performance appraisals by their principals, I presume. And so what percentage of our teachers and staff at the Department of …
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
33 words
So, it is going to be discontinued. So, the question still remains, what happens to the other 25 per cent? What have we done to remedy that situation? And that — [Inaudible interjection]
13 Mar 2020 House of Assembly
Official Hansard Report - House Of Assembly
103 words
Okay, okay. Page B -156. Compliance with health and safety requirements to hold one or more fire drills. To me, this caused great alarm when I read in 2018 the data was not available, in 2019 there is nothing here. I know that most businesses around this country have fire drills, they have fire safety wardens, and the fire drills …