Dear Editor,
Since coming to power in 2020, the PPP/C Government has been engaged in a wide range of infrastructure projects including roadways, bridges, hospitals, energy systems, and so on. The likes of which were never undertaken in Guyana before oil discovery and production. Many of the projects are within the scope of the PPP/C election manifesto and the Government has been adamant in fulfilling its promises embodied in the manifesto. This is admirable. The Government rightfully is calling attention to the transformational nature of these projects and the opportunities they present to improve the living standards of Guyanese and reduce its poverty burden. Opponents of the infrastructure projects are making an assortment of claims from corruption in the awarding of contracts to doling out the oil proceeds to Guyanese households.
The Government has publicly acknowledged (e.g., Guyana Dialo-gue – a weekly live FB/YT event – Thursday, July 28, 2023; Oct. 19, 2023) that there is an acute shortage of local engineers, technicians, contractors, and other skilled workers to accomplish the infrastructure projects. Countries (e.g., UAE) faced with such a shortage have imported workers from other countries such as India, where there is a surplus of skilled workers. This was concomitant with investments in focused education and training programmes. The Guyana Government is in a dilemma. It inherited an impoverished country and wants to fulfill its promises to the people. The opponents of the Government are razor-sharp with a bifocal lens of alleged racial discrimination and corruption. It is a classic case of “pot calling kettle black.” The Government’s approach to accomplishing its manifesto promises and more with the extant limited human capital and other required resources, and addressing the opposition’s allegations is to accept, at least tacitly, lowering the standards for the procurement and award of contracts. The Tepui Inc. fiasco, media-reported contractors’ transgressions and defaults, citizens’ complaints of inferior quality work, and allegations of corruption are the price to be paid for this option.
Historically, corruption follows civil infrastructure works regardless of countries and their stringent laws. Civil infrastructure works usually involve large sums of money with many uncontrollable factors such as climate, materials and equipment supply, and workforce. Human greed exploits these factors. The processes embodied within Guyana’s National Tender & Procurement Administra-tion (NPTA) are consistent with international norms. But contract requirements such as contractor’s experience and qualifications are prepared by one or more appropriately experienced engineers. If the engineer is inexperienced and is also compromised, then the contractor’s experience and qualifications and/or financial bonds can be lowered or tailored for a specific contractor. The NPTA’s evaluation process is then handicapped. NPTA is an independent not a government body. However, the Government must have independent peer reviews in all phases of public infrastructure works including procurement documents to prevent such corrupt practice. Even with flawless contract procurement and award, it is necessary to have high quality project management. This is a fundamental problem in the execution of civil infrastructure works in Guyana as noted by the writer (SN 2022/04/27; 2023/01/29) and others.
It is the right of every citizen to be vigilant and be constructively critical on the execution of public works to ensure value for public expenditures. But care must be exercised in rushing to condemn the Government when incidents such as the Tepui Inc. debacle occur without a thorough investigation to determine where the breach occurred and to fix it. Because, as stated above, corruption either deliberately or not is bound up in civil infrastructure works. Is it tolerable? Absolutely not. But systems must be in place and properly implemented to stymie corruption. One needs to look not only at a specific incident but the number of deficient public infrastructure works, and the losses compared to the total number and value of these works.
As an observer, it is easy to criticize the Government in the execution of public infrastructure works when deficiencies surface and are media-hyped, but there is a myriad of considerations beyond technical capabilities and capacity that a government must consider. The Guyana Govern-ment decided to push forward its manifesto’s infrastructure program-me and risk default, deficiencies, and quality. Certain checks and balances must be in place but are absent for derisking.
A solution for derisking is to fast-track building codes, standards and specifications, peer review, education, training, and certification of engineers, contractors, project managers, and other technical personnel. This could be accomplished while the required technical workforce is imported temporarily. Given the scale and scope of the public infrastructure works that the Government has undertaken with more in the planning and early initiation phase such as Silica City, a solution to stymie corruption and get value for public infrastructure investments is to create an umbrella infrastructure programme management unit to oversee the procurement and award of all contracts and the execution all public infrastructure works. Ideally, this should be a private sector contracted unit, but a private-public partnership will be more effective and efficient, at least, for the initial phase. This unit could be tasked with peer review, project management either in-house or contracted to the private sector for quality, value, and timeliness. In addition, the creation/adoption of building codes, standards, and specifications, and conducting certain focused education and training can also be part of the unit’s portfolio.
For the unit to function in the public interest, it must be well structured with astute leadership and competent technical staff using modern technologies, and with the necessary legal clout, and without political interference.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Muniram Budhu
Professor Emeritus
