Dear Editor,
One has to be careful not to confuse Thomas Lands Road with Thomas Street which has not needed repairs for decades. The former is the story of a contract to repair 200 meters of roadway over three months (90 days) at the cost of $30 million – the equivalent of $10 million per month or $150,000 per metre, at the rate of approximately 20 meters per day or 66+ metres per month.
One does not know how much leave time was included in this contract, nor for that matter the staffing complement of the contractor, nor indeed the latter’s track record, about which anyhow there were ecstatic encomiums offered by the responsible Minister. (Indeed it can be argued that the Bishop blessed the project on its initial completion).
But the foregoing raises questions about the relevant supervisory and investigative competencies within the Ministry of Public Works. It must be noted that of its full budgeted staff component of 447, as many as 257 are ‘Contracted Employees’, in addition to identified 28 Senior Technical (How many engineers?) and 34 Other Technical and Craft Skilled. It is unclear in what categories the ‘Contracted Employees’ fall. So it is not totally irrelevant to enquire what supervisory competencies were assigned to the project or of their required reporting responsibilities – to whom?
Assuming that the Technical requirements were drafted by the appropriately qualified personnel, they should also have been charged with monitoring its execution – not only of length, but depth as critically referred to in the published post mortem. It would be of interest to vet their respective job descriptions.
The whole matter indeed appears to be one of concern not only within the Ministry – in respect of performance evaluation; but indeed for institutions who must monitor such expenditure, including the Public Accounts Committee (inactive as it is) and most appropriately the Office of the Auditor General.
Not to mention those affected most – the tax paying motorists, even during school holidays.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)