Despite Government pulling the plug on funding for Hope Homes in August 2004, the residential home for the mentally challenged is listed in the 2005/06 Budget as receiving a $165,000 grant from the Health Ministry.

The National Drug Commission is also receiving a grant from Government despite announcements that it was to be absorbed in the Health Ministry last year.

Government and Hope Homes became locked in the bitter stand-off after Government was forced to remove clients from the organisation?s Brunswick Street facility to re-house them in Lefroy House in Dockyard in 2001. The Brunswick Street facility was condemned and Hope Homes, accusing Government of holding them hostage for funds, have been struggling to make the necessary repairs ever since.

Finally, in August, Health Minister Patrice Minors pulled the home?s Government funding in an attempt to move forward on a similar project headed by fundraising group Project 100.

Yesterday Health Permanent Secretary Kevin Monkman said the reason Hope Homes is still listed as receiving a grant from the Ministry is because of the timetables involved in getting fiscal information to the Ministry of Finance.

Essentially, there was not enough time to alter the information in the Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure 2005/06 regarding Hope Homes. So the home is listed as receiving a $165,000 grant where in fact it does not currently receive any money from Government.

Hope Homes was struggling valiantly to stay afloat in the New Year as renovations to the Brunswick Street facility progressed, and Mr. Monkman said yesterday that Government was still working with Project 100 to develop a residential group home in Sandys. The National Drug Commission is also listed as receiving more than three million dollars in grant money from the Health Ministry despite Government announcing in November 2004 that it will be absorbed into the Ministry.

The reason for that, Mr. Monkman said yesterday, is because the NDC itself was created under an Act of Parliament ? and Government is legally required to show the NDC as a separate entity on its books until that Act can be repealed.

Meanwhile, for practical purposes the Ministry is currently working with the NDC as though it were already part of the Ministry.

Mr. Monkman said he was uncertain when the Act would be repealed. Further details about how the NDC was absorbed into the Health Ministry will be revealed during the upcoming Budget Debate, he said.