Opposition Member of Parliament David Patterson on Thursday took aim at Public Works Minister, Juan Edghill, over the quality of road works being executed under his watch, as he criticized the measures in Budget 2023.
Patterson in his presentation argued that the APNU+AFC coalition constructed more roads at better quality during its term in office from 2015 to 2020.
According to the former Public Infrastructure Minister, the roads constructed under his watch are still durable and he charged that they were done at one-fifth of the current cost of roads being constructed now.
“Sir, this is what the PPP did with urban roads with five times the budget of the APNU. In 2020, 6.4 kilometres; 2021, 3.6 kilometres; and 2022, 18.3 kilometres. Here is what the coalition did Sir, in 2017, 20.2 kilometres; 21.8 kilometres in 2018; and we fell down in 2016, we did 16.6 kilometres. In three years 2017-2019, the coalition administration completed 58 kilometres of road works in urban areas compared to three of the PPP with all the money they have they have only done 28.1 kilometres,” he said, as he rebuffed the arguments of Public Works Minister Juan Edghill.
He told the National Assembly, that much of the road rehabilitation programme was conceptualised under his APNU+AFC government’s one-term tenure in government. Patterson said that the Special Projects Unit, which handles much of the road construction across the country now was created under then Junior Minister of Public Infrastructure, Annette Ferguson.
“In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the Coalition government purchased more than $450 million worth of equipment every year, increased the staffing two-fold, with engineers, semi-skilled and unskilled workers, placed it under the direction of the Work Services Group, and made it what it is today,” he argued.
In the same breath, he said that they were prevented from accelerating road construction as they did not have the finances to fund the magnitude of projects, like the current government.
Nonetheless, Patterson said that while the government boasts of the roads being constructed at “More than double the cost with half the quality, one can only wonder where the extra money is going.” On this note, he said “What makes it worse sir, in 2022 of the 290 kilometers of roads they said they did, only 55 kilometers were actually completed.”
On Wednesday, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill, highlighted that during its time in office, the government had completed $45 billion worth of miscellaneous roads.
He said to the House that their acceleration of road works in communities is not directly linked to the finances at hand but the quality of leadership at the helm of government.
Presenting a breakdown of the works done, Edghill said “In the 28 months that the PPP/C is in office, we have already allocated and implemented $45 billion worth of works in miscellaneous roads; in 56 months, $8 billion worth of roads – that was the lethargic, do-little state of the APNU+AFC.”
The minister added that a sum $136 billion has been appropriated to forge ahead with the construction of roads and bridges, which is part of their developmental strategy.
“Mr. Speaker, in terms of urban roads and bridges, in 2022, the three months that we came in we did 6.37 kilometers. In 2021, we continued our programme with 3.6 kilometres, in 2022, we built 18.3 kilometres of roads in the city and in the towns—urban centres,” Edghill pointed out before adding “In terms of miscellaneous roads, in 2020 we did 80 kilometres of community roads, in 2021 we built 117 kilometres, in 2022, we built 290 kilometers of community roads, that’s what this PPP/C did.”
As he boasted of the achievements from the last budget, the Minister further informed the House that in 2022 they upgraded 45 hinterland bridges from wood to concrete, with some still under construction. He said that 14 coastal bridges were upgraded from wood to concrete and an additional 40 will undergo construction this year. All the bridges, he explained are being built to international standards and quality.
“We are working to ensure that Guyana’s development and modernization is not stymied, or stagnant, but accelerated! We ‘mashing’ the accelerator. The people want development, and modernization, and that is what we are delivering,” Edghill said.
