Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar will soon be oc­cu­py­ing Knowsley af­ter the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent was moved out of the build­ing yes­ter­day. Min­is­ter of Hous­ing, Land and Ma­rine Af­fairs Dr Roodal Mooni­lal con­firmed yes­ter­day the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent would no longer have use of the build­ing for spe­cial oc­ca­sions.Mooni­lal is the min­is­ter re­spon­si­ble for gov­ern­ment-owned build­ings.He said in a phone in­ter­view with the T&T Guardian yes­ter­day: "The build­ing has been ear­marked for the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter (OPM)."

The Pres­i­dent, he said, would now host spe­cial meet­ings and events at the near­by Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) or at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre, St Ann's.A source yes­ter­day told the T&T Guardian the Pres­i­dent's Of­fice was not of­fi­cial­ly in­formed of the move.Mooni­lal said, how­ev­er, he was not aware of the is­sues raised by the source. "That is be­tween the Of­fice of the Prime Min­is­ter and the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent," he added.He said the de­ci­sion to move the OPM had been tak­en some time ago and the Of­fice of the Pres­i­dent would have been aware of it.Asked what was to be­come of the build­ing that hous­es the OPM at St Clair Av­enue, he said: "Sev­er­al min­istries have ex­pressed in­ter­est in the build­ing, in­clud­ing the Min­istry of Pub­li­cAd­min­is­tra­tion, to whom the build­ing be­longs. The Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty has al­so ex­pressed in­ter­est in the build­ing but the de­ci­sion still has to be made."

The Min­istry of Pub­lic Ad­min­is­tra­tion is head­ed by Car­olyn Seep­er­sad-Bachan and the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty by Em­manuel George.The de­ci­sion on the new oc­cu­pant would be made in two to three weeks, he added.Asked how soon Per­sad-Bisses­sar would move in­to Knowsley, Mooni­lal said by year-end, since the Ur­ban De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (Ude­cott) has to out­fit it for the OPM's oc­cu­pa­tion.Pres­i­dent Car­mona, he said, was ex­pect­ed to op­er­ate out of Pres­i­dent's House for all oth­er ac­tiv­i­ties.In fact, Car­mona yes­ter­day host­ed a vis­it by am­bas­sador-des­ig­nate of Poland, Pi­otr Kaszu­ba, at his of­fice on the grounds of Pres­i­dent's House.Car­mona still oc­cu­pies his pri­vate home at Flagstaff Hill. His pre­de­ces­sor, Prof George Maxwell Richards, lived in a cot­tage on the grounds of Pres­i­dent's House but that is said to be too small for him, his wife and their two chil­dren. Pres­i­dent's House has been un­oc­cu­pied and un­us­able since the roof col­lapsed in 2010. Oth­er than cov­er­ing it with a tem­po­rary shed roof no work has been done on the build­ing since then.A March re­port by the T&T Guardian said the ten­der for the restora­tion would be put out soon un­der the Min­istry of Works' Restora­tion Unit.Knowsley, which was re­stored a few years ago, for­mer­ly housed the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs.