Eight contracts worth $412M were on Monday signed as part of Guyana’s $1B Clean-Up My Country Programme.
The contracts were signed in the presence of Local Government and Regional Development Minister Norman Whittaker and will see the procurement of a number of items including tractors, trailers, and mini-excavators along with bins, barrels and garbage bags.
The government of Guyana allocated $1B in its 2014 budget for the programme with $500M each being allocated to the Georgetown and regional aspects of the programme. Monday’s contract signings will benefit both aspects.
Under the Georgetown programme, $294.7M out of the allocated $500M has already been committed while the regional programme has seen the commitment of $401M out of its allocated funds.
According to a press release from the Programme Implementation Committee, General Equipment Guyana (Genequip) won the contract valued $256, 050,000 for the supply of 45 tractors and trailers. Macorp won the contract valued $44,835,000 for the procurement of five mini excavators and DAX Contracting was awarded the $33,199,600 contract for the supply of 142 Skip Metal Bins.
Puran Brothers were awarded two contracts: one valued $27,000,000 for the supply of 600,000 garbage bags and one valued $37, 800, 00 for the supply of 5,500-45 gal metal barrels.
In addition, a contract valued $6, 854, 825 was awarded to JB Brothers for the completion of Phase II of the landfill site to the access road in Zorg-en-Hoop, Region Five. S Jagmohan Hardware Supplies and Construction Services also won a contract valued $5,800,000 for the supply of one Skid Steer Loader and Ainlim won a $1M contract for the supply of one flat trailer.
Whittaker noted that substantial amounts have already been expended from the allocated $1B and stated that the ministry would not want to seek more funds next year for a clean-up programme.
“To expend $1B in an exercise of this nature and then in 2015 have to be looking for funds to replicate, you would all agree is not the desired line that we want to take. That is not the kind of investment we want to make,” Whittaker said.
“We cannot go to the Government of Guyana for another billion dollars for any cleanup; if we go it must be for something else…we owe it to ourselves to maintain this new, clean environment that we are helping to develop at this point,” he further said.
He further said that the onus is on the beneficiaries of the cleanup to maintain the environments and explained that the ministry is setting out on a public awareness campaign.
“The expectation is that people will have a sense of involvement, a sense of what is being done, why it’s being done and added to that would be a desire to maintain the new environment to which they would have got acquainted,” Whittaker stated. He continued, “This is an investment that we expect the beneficiaries will want to take and maintain.”
According to Collin Croal, permanent secretary of the Local Government Ministry, a number of activities have been undertaken under the Georgetown component including the desilting of a number of canals along with repairs to a number of sluices. The community aspect of the clean-up is also in full swing and involves the interaction and involvement of community groups. Clean-up activities are still ongoing and, to date, there are over 28 communities that have started and completed clean-up. Croal stated that this week another eight communities will be signing to come onboard.
“Overall, the Georgetown community aspect is progressing smoothly,” he said.
Croal further said that, while the number of communities may not yet be at 50%, the geographical site of the work that has been done shows at least 50% cleanup of the Georgetown area.
Some markets will also receive facelifts as part of the programme; the La Penitence market and the Bourda Market will be upgraded with repairs and installations of lights. The La Penitence market will also have its sanitary block repaired while its internal drainage has already been completed. Similarly, the Bourda market will have its internal and external drains desilted soon along with the Orange Walk canal.
