The Regional Chairman of Region Six, David Armogan is calling on government ministries to inform the Regional Democratic Councils of ongoing and future projects within the regions.
According to Armogan, at present, the ministries do not inform the region of any work(s) they are undertaking in the region. He stressed that ministries and the regional administration should be more in sync when it comes to regional projects. He noted, “They give nothing [information] to the region; all we know is when we move around we see work going on in the region, and it is unfair to the region”.
The chairman relayed that the council strongly believes that it should be kept informed of projects undertaken within the region, while adding that the residents usually blame the administration for any substandard work(s) carried out within the region. Armogan added that it was important and would be helpful if the bill of quantities for the various projects be provided to the regional administration.
Armogan stressed that if regional officials and the council had prior knowledge of the bill of quantities and were aware of the nature of the projects, then they could overlook the projects. “When people are coming to the region to work, at least a courtesy call should be extended to say, ‘look we are coming to your region to do A, B, C, D,’ and maybe, if we can get the bill of quantities and the nature of the work, we too can supervise the work”, he said.
The chairman further noted that sometimes residents complain to the administration about projects in the region. However, most times the administration is unaware of where to take those complaints, since they are usually unaware as to who is in charge of the various projects. “There needs to be a greater level of synchronization between the work of the ministries and the work of the region, so when they are coming into the region to do work at least we must be aware of it. And once we are aware of it and know what is the nature of the job, the bill of quantities and so, attached to it, we can monitor it”.
Zamal Hussain, PPP/C Regional Councillor, at the Region’s last statutory meeting called for ‘out of region’ authorities to have “more respect” for the regional council. Hussain also highlighted that the council is never informed about the works carried out in the region by the various ministries. He said, this must change and “local democracy must be respected”, while calling for council to be informed of all regional projects by the ministries.
