Following the deaths of 20 children after the Mahdia dormitory fire of May 21st, the public’s major interest is two-fold: ensure that such a tragedy never occurs again and establish as best as possible where responsibility lay. This was the single biggest loss of lives for years – children in the care of the state – whether the school, municipality, region or ministry.
The more the Minister of Education Priya Manickchand writes about this matter, a clearer picture emerges of the failures that precipitated this horrendous incident where there is, of course, great interest in avoiding blame and moral responsibility.
In her latest correspondence of November 6th to this newspaper, Ms Manickchand rejected the view expressed in the SN editorial of November 4th that the dormitory children were under the direct care of the Ministry of Education.
She stated: “For whoever is interested in the truth, I repeat, the maintenance of all schools, dorms, teachers’ quarters, hiring of staff like dorm parents, cooks and security, supervision of students and residents in dorms etc in the Regions are the direct responsibility of the Regional Administration which is governed by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Dorm children therefore are under the direct care of the Regional Administration which is managed and governed by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development”.
If it is the case that the regions are completely responsible for the maintenance of the dorms why then did the Minister commission a report funded by UNICEF on the condition of the dorms? The report was entitled `‘Assessment Report – Field Study of Dormitory Plants’. Shouldn’t such a report then have been initiated by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and not the Ministry of Education? Did the minister consult with her colleague minister on the commissioning of the report or advise UNICEF that she was undertaking a task that really was not in her bailiwick?
Let’s set that question aside for the moment. When one commissions a report at the government level, one owns it. So even if the Minister suggests that neither she nor her ministry had responsibility for maintenance of the dorms what did she do with the report by Deen and Partners which was completed in May 2022, a year before the deadly fire?
There are glimmers of answers in two letters that she sent to this newspaper but they don’t settle the matter satisfactorily.
What is noteworthy is that Minister Manickchand never disclosed to the public that this report had been commissioned, completed and submitted. Why was this so? The publication of the findings of such a report would have created its own momentum towards achieving some of the urgent changes needed such as the removal of the constraining grills at the Mahdia dorm. Not even after the fire of May 21st 2023 did the minister or her ministry reveal the findings even though that would constitute a material withholding of vital information. It wasn’t until June 5th, 2023 when this newspaper began publishing some of the findings of the report that the Minister finally began commenting on it and then only to say that the “relevant” people had been notified.
In her lengthy letter of November 2nd to this newspaper, Ms Manickchand began revealing what had become of the report.
In her own words and not those of the Chief Education Officer who she quoted at length, the Minister said: “After I received said Report (early July 2022) I shared immediately with the Ministers of Finance and Local Government and Regional Development. For obvious reasons. The Ministry of Finance would have to provide the budgetary allocations needed to heed the Report, and the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development would receive said money and have responsibility for the maintenance, upkeep, repairs, renovations, etc, of dorms in accordance with said Report. Additionally, the Ministry of Local Government could advise its officers of the contents of the Report and the changes necessary. Not long after I shared same, I laid said document before the Cabinet (August 2022), where the Report was considered, and decisions were made, to wit, that there would be an inclusion in the budgets over a few years, an appropriate sum that would see the eventual compliance with the recommendations in the Report. Later, but prior to the fire (April 2023), in yet another deliberation of the said Report, decisions were taken at the Cabinet that all the recommendations would be implemented”.
Yet, up to the time of the fire almost a year after the report, the grills on the Mahdia dorm had not been removed. The availability of money could never have been an issue as PPP/C governments have routinely used the Contingencies Fund and financial papers to clear the way for what is important. Indeed, after the fire, in her letter of November 2nd, the minister said: “Subsequent to that, the Cabinet, in another deliberation of the said Report after the fire, decided that each dorm would be immediately outfitted with fire prevention and fire-fighting tools and equipment, that doors would not be grilled, that each dorm would have adequate dorm parents and security personnel, adequate beds and working bathrooms. The Guyana Fire Service affixed the various tools and implements, including but not limited to exit signs, extinguishers, fireballs, and smoke alarms, in quantities they deemed appropriate”. Action was immediately taken after the fact and not impeded by the complications of whether the responsibility was the ministry’s, region’s, municipality’s or other.
In her letter of November 6th to SN, the Minister suggests that Cabinet direction had been sought after the Deen and Partners report on the sequencing of the work on the dorms but had not been forthcoming. That in itself is interesting.
The clear disjunction between central and regional government in not removing the grills last year is a discredit to Ms Manickchand and the government as a whole. The Mahdia fire service which comes under the Home Affairs Ministry recommended their removal to the regional education officer who comes under the region/local government ministry but who then says she was recalled to Georgetown by the Ministry of Education and was unable to pursue the task. A total muddle. That this dysfunctional system was in full force in the third year of this government is no doubt reflective of the varied tensions between the centre and the regions. PPP/C governments have been in charge for 26 of the last 31 years and must account for why these problems still exist.
The Minister should be summoned by the Mahdia CoI to testify on everything related to the report she commissioned, what steps she took to expedite recommendations and to answer questions about responsibility for what transpired.
