Chinese Government provides NZD 4 million grant for Police Headquarters Construction Project (Linked to Record ID#69560)

Project narrative

In 2004, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) agreed to provide a NZD 4 million ($2.8 million) grant to the Government of the Cook Islands for the Police Headquarters Construction Project. The purpose of this project was to construct a new Police Headquarters building in downtown Avarua (exact locational coordinates: -21.206014, -159.777827) behind an already existing police station. China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation was the contractor responsible for implementation. In October 2004, a seven-member team from China — including an architect, structural engineer, quantity surveyor, reconnaissance, a Ministry of Commerce official and a translator — arrived in Rarotonga to undertake preliminary planning and design work related to the Police Headquarters Construction Project. The old police station was vacated in February 2006 in order to allow for the construction of the new building to take place. Construction commenced in May 2006 and the project passed a mid-term MOFCOM inspection in November 2006. The project was officially completed and the new police station was handed over to the local authorities on March 30, 2007. The sponsor (China’s Ministry of Commerce) conducted an on-site, post-project inspection in November 2007 and December 2007. However, in 2014, it was reported that the police station required extensive repairs. The Chinese Government provided a grant to repair the building and several other government buildings in 2017 (as captured via Record ID#64019). According to Cook Islands Finance Minister Mark Brown, it was a major repair job because China’s previous construction work was ‘substandard’.