Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill has assured that the Sherriff Street/Mandela Avenue road expansion project should be almost completed by the end of the year
He gave the assurance to the Commit-tee of Supply during the consideration of the 2020 budget estimates last Wednesday. The question about the expansion project was posed by Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Governance, Gail Teixeira, who observed that $2.7 billion was already spent on the road that is nowhere near completion. She asked if the $553 million allocation for the project will ensure its completion.
Edghill told the house that the road expansion project was one that was left over from the previous PPP/C government and was a US$60 million loan which was funded by the Inter-American Develop-ment Bank (IDB) and should have been completed already. He noted that when he entered office as the minister, it was discovered that works were not being done to the road not only because of the virus but for another reason. “The other reason was because of non-compliance with the environmental standards, the IDB had to shut the disbursements down on this project… it was badly mismanaged” he said.
He informed the Committee that works are expected to recommence soon as consultants, contractors and those overseeing the project from the ministry have been engaged. He detailed that two subcontractors will be doing the bridges that need to be done. “My understanding is that before the end of this year you will see paving of the road [and] the insertion of asphaltic concrete” he assured.
Further, some remedial works had to be done before asphalting can take place based on the deteriorated state of the road and as such the contractors are back on the job. If any issues are to arise in terms of having the specialist from China come in to oversee the project, arrangements have been made with the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority to facilitate a special chartered flight in accordance with the country’s COVID-19 measures.
Another project which has been left unfinished is the East Coast Highway expansion project. Minister Teixeira asked the public works minister if the almost $2.6 billion allocation will bring the completion to that project. In response Edghill said that that project was also started when they were last in government and was just needed be completed.
“The road is still not completed. So we had a photo op of a brand new road, something that was delivered under the APNU+AFC and all they had to do was to complete the road” he fumed. Minister Edghill also informed the house that financing for that project was made available from China while stating that works including signage and traffic light installations are still to be completed to the road.
Teixeira further asked which roads have already benefited from an allocation of just over $2 billion under “Miscellaneous roads and drainage” project in the budget. The minister said that the $2.084 billion were roll- over funds from 2017 as works were not done. He mentioned that there is a long list of road works that have not been completed since 2017 and gave as examples, the construction and rehabilitation of roads in Region Two – the Suddie Hospital Road and the Queenstown Sawmill road and bus shed among others.
In Region Three, he mentioned roads at De, Kinderen, Greenwich Park, Uitvlugt, Stewartville and Den Amstel among those that have not been completed. “The list is long but what I’m indicating to you is that while this is making a call on the 2020 budget, these were works that were supposed to have been completed since 2019” Edghill told the house.
A number of the contracts he said were signed and entered into after the December 21st 2018 no-confidence vote. “That is the reflection of why we’re having to put all of this in the budget because it is monies that were spent that ought not to have been spent because it has no parliamentary oversight and no legitimacy” he said. As the opposition heckled, he reminded that the government was in caretaker status at the time.
