Dear Editor,
I refer to an article in your issue of Tuesday April 28, 2009 captioned ‘Hope Canal consultancy contract awarded solely on set guidelines.’ In it Mr Lionel Wordsworth, the CEO of our National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), first of all confirms that the company Mott MacDonald was part of the process which advised the government that the Hope canal should be built to relieve the Lama conservancy high level during the rainy season. He therefore confirms my impression that this company was one of those being paid to recommend solutions to our problems and then we are allowing them to be part of the process of bidding to implement their own recommendations. This would appear to place them in a conflict of interest position.
Secondly two highly qualified Guyanese hydraulic engineers Messrs Ralph V Seegobin and Ram Dharamdial wrote that there were numerous flaws in Wordsworth’s and therefore the NDIA’s description of the project. I want to remind the public that our intrepid Minister Persaud and Mr Wordsworth have to date totally disregarded the objections to this project raised by a number of prominent hydraulic engineers like Malcolm Ali, Mike Ragwen and Ralph Seegobin, as well as the reservations expressed by the civil society organisation the Guyana Citizens Initiative whose principal interest is flood relief, not to mention the residents living in the villages which can be affected if this canal fails, a not uncommon occurrence in Guyana.
I am seriously considering getting together a few financiers and challenging this matter in court, by seeking an injunction to stop this project from proceeding further, since the authorities have violated the constitutional rights of the people on the East Coast by unilaterally committing the villages of Hope, Lowlands and Dochfour to be subjected to this possibly hazardous canal without a full consultation process with those whose lives can be affected in case of a failure. I am advised that it offends several articles of the constitution. In addition I believe that this canal will cost far more than the alternatives put forward by the engineers who I have mentioned above, and who think that it should be located in other less hazardous areas such as Land of Canaan. They have also suggested the immediate desilting of the Mahaica River which is contributing in no small measure to this problem.
Apparently also it has been alleged that the project was not awarded to the lowest bidder and the National Procurement and Tender Administration is yet to inform the lowest bidder why their bid was not accepted, and the higher one from Cemco/SRKNgineering/ MacDonald was.
I also need to understand how the NDIA/NDIB is accounting for all of the money they are spending, since apparently they do not come under any statutory supervision at all. After all we have spent nearly $7B dollars since 1995 on drainage and in December 2008 and January 2009 there was still considerable flooding on the East Coast in some areas such as Dochfour for as long as one month. Minister Persaud can run from pillar to post spending billions of our taxes giving the impression that he is doing something, but he has little to show as far as results are concerned. Our agricultural production is still dropping and flooding is still very apparent almost everywhere.
Yours faithfully,
Anthony Vieira MS MP
