The Govind Park Stadium in Ba. [Source: Fiji Government/Facebook]

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad is calling for a thorough investigation into the substandard work carried out on the Govind Park Stadium in Ba.

Prasad visited the stadium yesterday, accompanied by representatives from the Ba Town Council.

The stadium was severely damaged in 2016 by Tropical Cyclone Winston and in 2018 the Ba Town Council with the assistance of the government secured contractors to carry out upgrade work.

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad during his visit to the Govind Park Stadium in Ba.

Prasad upon reviewing the Govind Park project says he not happy with the multi-million dollar project.

” This project has been a disaster. It was badly managed, badly handled. In fact people of Ba are for the last six years have been denied the opportunity to hold any sort of tournament . I am told that in some sense people of Ba are beginning to lose interest in sports generally because there has been no sporting facility particularly the stadium”.

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad during his visit to the Govind Park Stadium in Ba.

Prasad says those responsible for this disaster need to be held accountable.

“We need a thorough investigation as to how the original contractor which built the stadium managed to manipulate, change the design and built it the way he though was appropriate. The funding that was allocated about four million dollars was to cover the whole stadium so what we are saying is that we should investigate how CIU the then Construction Implementation Unit managed this, how the contractors were allowed to chop and change the design and put out something which is not up to standard.”

Finance Minister Professor Biman Prasad during his visit to the Govind Park Stadium in Ba.

Prasad says the government has allocated additional budget to finish the work.

He is also concerned that the project does not comply with the proper safety standards.