Dear Editor,
With great pomp and I assume pride, the Hon. Attorney General Anil Nandlall announced that the Head of State has instructed that the Ministries are to make functional within their respective Ministries and Project Units, a unit to specifically evaluate the execution of all contracts. Execution? Forgive the double entendre. For indeed what we see these days is the beheading of works by our nobility. The AG states further, this is being undertaken in order to assess the performance of the contractors in the discharge of their contractual duties and obligations.
This imperial-like dictum comes when no infrastructure project and I repeat no infrastructure project since the Government took office in 2020 has been satisfactorily completed within the deadline of the several contracts.
I am among those who in August 2020, publicly stated that we should give this young President Irfaan Ali a chance to set things right and to make optimum use of our new found massive wealth. He has let us down. The establishment of these new units is an unfortunate waste of money and time and taking all relevant factors into account, the President obviously assumes that his citizens are a collection of ‘non compos mentis’ and idiots including his own party faithfuls.
I’ve made this point before. It is shared stupidity to undertake projects without the technical, professional and managerial skills in place to monitor the execution of these works. May I add this caveat that what we see today is literally the proverbial execution of works using massive sums available on what is a clear unacceptable spending spree with the cloud of corruption being manifest.
I was once tasked with a triple portfolio of Works, Hydraulics and Supply. To support this exercise, fortunately I had Engineers, the likes of Felicia Baird, Phillip Allsopp, David Klaukty, Steve Narine, Samuel Irad Ramsahoye, Walter Willis, Lawrence Charles, Maurice Veecock, Anand Dharry, Sammy Thomas and an Administrative giant switched as Permanent Secretary Gordon Marshall, Architects such as George Henry and Valuation Officer, Dennis Patterson. All persons of integrity and patriots and who gave sound advice.
Before embarking on any civil works, these patriots ensured that materials were available and that we had in place management and manpower to successfully complete these works within the given time frame. I am painfully disappointed and disgusted by what is taking place in every Region and by every executing government agency in our country.
Why is there the need to set up these so-called units as announced? I feel insulted and hurt because the President and the AG are insulting us citizens of this country. What we see is not even like putting a bandaid on a festering sore. Fix the several agencies at the source. That among other standard operating procedures is to ensure that the Agencies have the necessary engineering technical and managerial skills available.
In addition, as was practised decades earlier is to inform and involve the citizens who are the intended beneficiaries. In this way, we found that citizens who either live in the contiguous areas would provide a watchful eye so that bad works are discovered at the earliest possible time.
If President Ali is serious or sincere, he should put first things first, which are
a. Ensuring that contracts are not awarded to persons with little or no track record.
b. To ensure that the above mechanisms are in place, to discipline Contractors when they fail to satisfy the terms and conditions of these Contracts, which the casual observer would note are capriciously awarded.
We must stop this nonsense, as tradition has it, of closing the gate when the animals have already fled or from the old phrase of ‘closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.’
How can one avoid the perception that there is corruption, skulduggery, nepotism, with the award of Government contracts everywhere?
What we face today is the ignoring of earlier efforts to put in place a structure to cope with and to correct this ongoing challenge. This contortion of multiple works with no structure in place to ensure that success is achieved. That includes going to Parliament to pass the Engineering Act proposed sometime ago.
Beyond this, a professionally staffed project execution unit capable of observing shoddy workmanship and poor quality materials and work done inconsistent with the requirements of the State and people should have been a sine qua non before embarking on this spending spree. This bureaucratic implant announced by the AG at the behest of the President is not only a weight but at worst an attempt to deceive, and insult to the intelligence of our people.
Citizens deserve better, from Region 1 to 10. Last week I quoted the sentiments expressed by the Ghanaian Scholar, Samuel Koranteng-Pipim. Today, I ask Guyanese everywhere who are the victims of this treachery to keep on agitating and to have faith that the ‘Pen is mightier than the Sword,’ first expressed by Bulwer Lytton.
It is the duty of this generation to speak up and agitate in order to bequeath to succeeding generations a country with bridges, buildings and roads that last for long periods. We must, with the aid of responsible and independent media, educate and agitate, to liberate our people from this stupidity and apparent corruption which as one political leader once said , ‘enough is enough.’
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Elder
