The cancellation of the traffic lights’ education programme has produced different explanations from two senior government officials and one of the aggrieved bidders has said that his confidence in the public tender process has been dented by the manner in which it was handled.
When asked why the project was cancelled, government spokesman Dr Roger Luncheon said it was one of the projects which government had to give up in the context of the multilateral debt relief that Guyana and other Heavily Indebted Poor Countries had won from the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB) and other institutions. His explanation differed from that of Minister of Transport Robeson Benn, who said that the programme was no longer needed as it should have been implemented months ago.
Speaking with this newspaper recently, Luncheon explained that government had to give up a portion of IDB funding within a specific timeframe. “Therefore a number of projects for which we had already gotten loan approval had to be cut and I think that was one of them,” Luncheon said.
He said many other projects, which had specific funding from the IDB, also had to be given up in the context of the debt cancellation.
However, contractors who had tendered and presented proposals for the programme did not receive any formal notification from government about its status and were surprised at Benn’s comments about the lack of relevance of such a programme at this time. Public relations specialist Kit Nascimento, Vic Insanally, Alex Graham and Carwyn Holland were the consultants selected to submit tenders because of the nature of the project and the experience required.
In an invited comment, Benn had told Stabroek News recently that there had been a delay in the setting up of the traffic lights and so there was now no intention to continue with the programme as it was intended. The traffic signal implementation project had been part of phase two of the IDB-funded main road rehabilitation programme.
Contacted for a comment, Graham confirmed that he had been asked to participate in the process and so went ahead and submitted his bid before the set deadline.
He said all of the participants in the process were invited to the formal opening of tenders and each participant made a presentation based on their proposals for the design of a suitable public education programme.
He said he felt all four participants were satisfied that the opening of the tender process had been completed and that their proposals were all properly submitted, but after this they had heard nothing.
“I think that we all sat waiting but we got no response until we saw the article in the newspapers,” he said.
Graham told Stabroek News that he found it distressing that the process had to work out that way and stressed that it was not a matter of whether he won or lost the tender process.
“It’s not about whoever is elected to do it, but more a matter that we want to have confidence in the process,” he said.
Graham said he had lost confidence in the public tender process and as such had ceased any such involvement, but had broken this commitment for the traffic education programme “and now I’m distressed.
“You cannot simply develop the profession if people cannot have confidence in the public tender process. Someone has to do some rapid remedial work so that professionals will have confidence in the tender process and so they would be willing to participate,” he said.
Graham underscored how important the programme still was, as evidenced by the confusion at many traffic light junctions each day.
Insanally said his company did quite a lot of work on its tender, but had never heard from the Ministry of Public Works’, Work Services staff, who in the first place invited him to participate in the process.
“We never heard back from them and I don’t think anyone has heard from them,” he said.
He said his company conducted in-depth studies and held focus group discussions. It also spent a lot of time at intersections videotaping commuters’ behaviour.
He views as “ridiculous” statements coming from the minister that the programme in its intended format was no longer necessary at this time.
“The reality is that there is a need for a public education programme so that people would know how to behave at those junctions [as well as] minibus drivers, who insist on avoiding some of the junctions and cutting across the smaller streets,” he said.
He was also concerned about the issue of funding saying that the fact that the campaign was advertised meant that funding must have been allotted.
Insanally said the fact that the programme was scrapped constituted total disregard of their efforts since they had to read about the programme’s status in the print media.
“I haven’t given up hope, since I feel that the education programme is inevitable,” he said.
After waiting for a response, following the submission of his tender in August, Nascimento had written to Benn twice, but still got no response.
Nascimento’s most recent letter to the minister was on December 13 when he requested his intervention since he had heard nothing about the project.
Prior to this letter, on November 27, Nascimento informed the minister that he made a power-point presentation along with his project partner Cathy Hughes to Kadri Parris and other Ministry of Works personnel.
He also told Benn that he attended the opening of bids along with the other contractors and while he has been in contact with the ministry personnel they have been unable to officially inform him about the status of the project.
“I am concerned about this move because if you look at the details of my proposals and the degree of work put into it (you would see) the impact it would have on educating persons on the use of the lights. The fact that persons are stealing the batteries indicates a negative attitude towards the lights,” he said.
Nascimento feels there is no justification for stopping the programme whether he or anyone one else does it. “A public information programme is certainly needed,” he insisted.
Holland was hesitant to speak on the issue but said he had learnt that the programme might be scrapped. He too noted however that he had received no formal word on the status of the programme.
Prior to the installation of the lights government had promised that it would have launched a public awareness campaign to sensitize road users about its functions. However, several months after the official commissioning of the lights, there has been no campaign even as many motorists and pedestrians continue to breach the signals resulting in some of them being prosecuted in the courts where they admitted having scant knowledge of the operation of the lights.
“At the moment I think there is a general feeling that we don’t need to embark on such a programme, it should have been done way ahead of the establishment and workings of the traffic lights and we have gone beyond that point,” Benn had told this newspaper.
“We’ve gone beyond the point where it would be useful in the way it was envisaged and so we have to find the best way. The public is more or less well informed about the working of the traffic lights,” Benn contended.
