– $580M spent up to mid November, Wordsworth says
The Community Drainage and Irrigation Project (CDIP) is under tighter supervision having been restructured following reports of poor management and poor supervision of the works being done in communities.
Chief Executive Officer of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), Lionel Wordsworth told Stabroek News recently that the agency has implemented a number of measures aimed at enhancing the performance of the project and providing for better transparency and accountability. Out of a budget of $662 million for the year, $580 million was spent up to mid-November, he said.
Earlier this year, Wordsworth had said that under directions from the Minister of Agriculture, he and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry led a team to consider improvement in the functioning of the CDIP and to implement a rigid monitoring and evaluation programme from January this year. He said that in restructuring the programme, the coordinator and other staff were reassigned and some persons were sent on leave to allow the restructuring to be completed unimpeded. “We were receiving numerous reports of poor management and poor supervision of the works being done in communities. The Ministry of Agriculture was unhappy with the level of supervision and it instructed the NDIA to implement a stricter supervisory system,” he had said of the CDIP.
Recently, he said that the measures taken include the implementation of a new computerised payroll system which would ensure that workers are paid on time and there is efficient monitoring of resources. All payments to workers would be made through the banking system to eradicate irregularities, he added.
The team had also carried out a workers’ verification exercise to eradicate irregularities and to implement a rigid monitoring and evaluation programme and subsequent to this, a database was created.
Wordsworth also said that arising out of a meeting with the Minister of Local Government, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry and Regional Executive Officers, it was recommended that all workers under the CDIP would be supervised by the Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) to provide more efficiency and more task work would be implemented to ensure greater value for money expended. This was implemented and meetings were held with the relevant REOs and NDCs to this effect, he said.
In addition, a new Project Coordinator and Supervisor were appointed while non performing Regional Coordi-nators, such as in Region 10, were changed to achieve better efficiency.
Currently, 1,880 persons are employed under the CDIP Project and Wordsworth said, “The work of the CDIP project will continue as it has provided employment and has done well in terms of keeping drainage canals in vulnerable communities in good condition and maintenance.”
The CDIP started in 2007 and was initiated by former president Bharrat Jagdeo. The programme was being managed by the Finance Ministry through a $50 million grant but was later expanded and placed under the ambit of the Agriculture Ministry.
