Delivery unit renamed

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, March 27, 2023 – The National Delivery Unit is the new name of the Premier’s Delivery Unit and with the new title comes more time to get its work done. 

The NDU will have its tenure extended according to Cabinet minutes; it’s now another 12 months with the hope it can deliver on its mandate.

It was created to run for 15 months and see ten major projects, both infrastructural and service based, to completion holding contractors and other hired partners accountable. 

The National Delivery Unit was supposed to be a team of “skilled project management leaders and engineers to lead on TCIG’s high-value and most impactful projects to ensure timely delivery of promises and services to the citizens and residents of TCI.” 

Unfortunately the unit has been plagued with staffing challenges.  Initially headed by Dr. Justin Ram, CEO of Justin Ram Advisory Services and former Director of Economics at the Caribbean Development Bank,  the aim was to have locals staffing it eventually. The government has had trouble however finding someone to lead the organization and is still looking, with notices posted as late as March for a number of key roles to be filled. 

While most of the ten major projects it has been overseeing are already started they are for the most part closer to their beginning than completion; raising questions about whether the unit which was supposed to revolutionize the flow and Government’s pace on big ticket works has fallen victim to the country’s employment crisis.