The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) is verifying its community workers to regularise their employment and to stamp out corruption, including the inflation of payment sheets.
Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture Alli Baksh and CEO of the NDIA Lionel Wordsworth made the disclosure during a meeting with workers attached to offices at Foulis, Buxton, Friendship, Enterprise and Strathspey, on the East Coast of Demerara last Saturday.
According to the Government Information Agency (GINA), Baksh emphasised how crucial drainage and irrigation is to farmers, while noting that government would be investing more than $500M annual on the Community Drainage and Irrigation Programme (CDIP).
“We are verifying workers and the communities they are attached to… they will be required to submit their bank account numbers to the ministry… they will be given the option of how to work, whether they will continue with the current system of 15 days on and 15 off or not,” he is quoted as saying. The ministry is also clamping down on complacency as it cannot afford to accommodate negligent workers. “We have had reports of workers who go on site and lime… we will be coming down hard on this,” Baksh added.
Meanwhile, Wordsworth said a number of steps are to be taken for the imminent implementation of CDIP, beginning with the national verification of all workers. “…This entails going to the communities to verify the individuals… in doing so we will compile a database of NDIA workers along with their employment track record and bank account number for payments,” he said.
This process will also put workers under the purview of the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils. “This step is taken as a measure to stamp out corrupt and dishonest practices amongst workers—specifically between foremen who do not have the authority to employ but do so, and engage themselves in other dishonest means in the compilation of payment sheets,” Wordsworth explained.
In response, some workers said they were concerned about the clearance of central drainage structures in Enterprise for farmers; better monitoring of the drainage system; late payments; and better cooperation between workers and management. Wordsworth said that the two central canals in Enterprise were dredged but they need to be maintained. “We have spent millions of dollars to execute the major infrastructural works, not only in Enterprise but also around the country, however workers do not diligently execute maintenance works,” he explained, adding that the CDIP will start in a few weeks and it address all infrastructure works in the area that will benefit farmers.
According to GINA, Baksh and Wordsworth also inspected the central canals at Enterprise. Baksh told workers that a machine will be used to execute works there and he is depending on them to maintain and effect complementary measures.
