Dear Editor,
On April 16, Minister of Agriculture, Dr Ramsammy reported to the National Assembly that a team from Guyana will leave on April 26 for India to conduct tests and diagnostic checks on 14 drainage pumps both fixed and mobile bought from that country.
Minister Ramsammy was apparently vaguely briefed as to what the Guyanese team was really going to India for, except to say that one of the clauses of the purchase contract was that the pumps must be tested before shipment, although he noted that many of the components for the pumps have already been shipped and are in Guyana. So why is a Guyanese team being sent to India to test and verify what?
Testing the performance of pumps and certifying their manufacture in accordance with the specifications are complex operations and Guyana does not have people with the necessary skills, training and equipment to do so. These functions are usually contracted out to firms that specialize in performing these services for clients. In the early days of Guyana’s independence the Crown Agents were contracted to carry out these functions for the government and they did a good job.
Strangely, it was only yesterday that the government acknowledged that Guyanese did not have the relevant skills to be employed in building the Marriott Hotel, and suddenly a team with specialized skills and training to test drainage pumps and examine their components for specification compliance could be mustered by the Ministry of Agriculture and sent to India on what in the circumstances appears to be holiday at taxpayers’ expense following the writing of a flawed contract.
The contract for the pumps from India instead of useless clauses for trips should have had provisions for Guyanese to be trained in the operation and maintenance of the pumps and/or have the manufacturer send a team to Guyana to assemble the pumps and conduct test runs to ensure that they satisfy specification requirements. Banks DIH is modernizing its brewery at Thirst Park and the German firm supplying the equipment is responsible for its installation with the help of local counterparts. There will also be test runs on site after the equipment is installed to ensure the system functions as per specification requirements.
Sending a hastily formed team with little or no proven experience in the testing of pumps to India is not free and only adds to the cost of the pumps. This cost would have been unnecessary if the pumps were purchased from a reputable manufacturer which would have given written guarantees regarding the manufacture/performance of its product as demanded by the specifications, and these expectations by the purchaser would have been upheld during the specified warranty period.
Minister Ramsammy should have a second look at the large numbers of pumps, excavators and other equipment owned by the Ministry of Agriculture/National Drainage and Irrigation Authority which are out of order because of the lack of skilled personnel to service them and source needed spare parts.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
