Region Three Regional Democratic Council (RDC) Chairman Inshan Ayube has denied accusations made by the Den Amstel Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) officials that they were never informed about the community visits made by President Irfaan and the starting of the works for rehabilitation of the community ground.
Ayube noted that the president can visit a community without informing the NDC as it is not a council meeting but a community visit. However, he added that the NDC was present at the recent visit made by the president to Den Amstel, where he mentioned the projects that will be done for the community.
Additionally, he said that calls were made to the NDC Chairman at the start of the rehabilitation project on Monday but no one answered the phone.
He suggested that the NDC check as the Bill of Quantities was indeed posted for the community as an assurance that works will be done.
NDC Chairman Kenton Hilliman has said that while the NDC welcomes the works, NDC officials were never officially informed of the planned works. NDC officials have also indicated that the authority is being sidelined in favour of a Community Development Council.
But Minister within the Ministry of Public Works Deodat Indar told Stabroek News that he would not condone what the NDC is saying about not being informed about the rehabilitation works being done to the community ground since the president visited Den Amstel recently with some ministers including him and regional officials and NDC councillors, residents and athletes were among those present. He said they asked questions and they asked for the help and the president agreed to the commitments.
Indar noted that during that outreach, the president stated that within one or two weeks, the commitments that were made would be delivered upon. He further supported that by saying that apart from the president’s visit, Minis-ter of Youth and Sport Charles Ramson Jr made three visits to the community on the matter. “If the NDC wants to play an inactive role when the consultations are happening and then when the works are awarded they want to play destructive role, it’s a different story.” He added that he doesn’t understand the impairment and thinking of the NDC officials.
Indar stated that everyone saw that they were doing work there and for them to chase out the operator and harass him and lock the gate was not right. Also, for him to hide behind the guise that he wasn’t informed is also not right, he said. The minister noted that everyone was in the community when the commitments were made and for the NDC chairman to say he doesn’t know work would start on Monday was not true.
The minister said that for him to say he stopped the work because he wasn’t informed of the visit made by the president to start the work on the community ground Monday is not acceptable.
He added that the contract is under the Regional Democratic Council office and the contract has been awarded using contractors from Den Amstel with labour from Den Amstel to do work in the community.
