Participants in a competition held earlier this year for the design of a monument to the victims of the Cubana bombing are asking why after five months a winner has still not been declared.
The closing date for the competition which was sponsored by the government was March 25, and the winner’s prize was set at $1M. No further information has since been given to those who submitted entries.
Stabroek News sought a comment on the issue from the local government ministry but was told on Tuesday that both Minister Kellawan Lall and Permanent Secretary Sewchan were at a meeting. However, this newspaper was later told that according to Sewchan “the documents containing the results of the competition were given to the minister for him to make a pronouncement on them.”
Earlier this year Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon had announced that central government after forming a broad-based committee would launch a competition for the design of the monument. On another occasion he had identified the environs of the University of Guyana as a possible location for the monument.
Minister of Public Works Robson Benn had clashed with Georgetown Mayor Hamilton Green earlier this year after Benn had halted work on the monument being erected near to the junction of Camp and Lamaha streets by the Mayor and City Council. Benn had said that something of that size would prove hazardous to the flow of traffic. Green had deemed the minister’s argument absurd and had noted that senior government functionaries including Prime Minister Samuel Hinds had attended the launching ceremony. He had also said that the monument was expected to be erected about 30 feet from the intersection and that both carriageways on Camp Street were wide.