Dear Editor,
The Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, has made a valid and timely assessment when he stated that the people should hold all contractors responsible for shoddy and substandard work done, and he hit the bull’s eye when he further contended that each citizen has a right to demand value for money.
The Minister’s statement came at an opportune time when there is massive corruption going on in Region 6 and I was profoundly gratified when I read Dr Ramayya’s exposé on the corrupt practices in this region. The substandard work done at Baracara is just the tip of the iceberg; more than 90% of the capital works done are of a substandard nature or the costs are highly inflated so that again there is no value for money. In fact, with the capital works proposed in the 2017 Budget, it is my estimation that if proper budgetary planning had been done then the people of Region 6 would be accessing more value for money in 2017. This is where the Minister’s input is vitally necessary.
Moreover, the Minister should investigate the high volume of ‘emergency works’ done in the Region. Here again value for money is lost since the cost of these works is highly inflated and skewed in favour of the contractor and those receiving the mandatory ‘kickbacks’. For instance, during the El Nino period in March-April 2016, the government awarded millions of dollars to do excavation works from Whim to No 74 Village, but nearly 60% of these projects had already been done by NDIA machines and these contracts were awarded to a friend of a Region 6 official. This contractor simply did a little bit of cleaning and collected the millions awarded. I suggest that the Minister carry out an investigation since the records must indicate that these drainage canals were already done by NDIA machines deployed in the Region unless the records have been falsified.
Unfortunately, the focus is on the ministers of government, but not an eyelid is raised concerning regional officials.
In a letter to the press I highlighted the substandard work done at No 52 Middle Walk Access Road which began disintegrating just 3 weeks after being constructed. I wish the Minister could investigate this but I want to implore him not to send the same team which went to Baracara since all three persons are connected to senior council officials. This type of conflict of interest will never lend itself to a credible investigation. Furthermore, a member of that team, even though he is an executive member of the AFC campaigned on behalf of the PPP in the last local government election so this type of opportunistic tendency should not characterize a member of the team. Another member of the team is a private engineer who is also a contractor of the Region, so how can these people carry out an unbiased investigation?
Another issue affecting cost and standard of work is the fact that some of the contractors who were awarded works do not have the necessary machinery and equipment to do the work and have to sub-contract some aspects of the job. Why should these people be given contracts when they do not have the necessary machinery to successfully carry them out?
Lastly, I wish to congratulate the Minister of Communities and the Regional Chairman since there is now a new round of consultation with the NDCs and the works prioritized by them are now being fairly assessed, which hopefully will find its way into the Regional Estimates 2017.
Never again should consultation be sacrificed so that corrupt practices can reign. However, I do hope also that NDCs are given a copy of the Regional Estimates so that they can make a proper assessment in the future.
I do hope that the Regional Engineer, Mr Roopesh Singh and the Regional Vice Chairman, Mr Dennis Deoroop are now enjoying their holidays in the USA after working extremely hard to formulate the Regional Estimates 2017.
Yours faithfully,
Lakram Singh
Vice Chairman Works Committee
No 52-74 NDC