Publicly, at least, the PPP/Civic administration is almost certainly not about to admit that its awarding of a multi-million dollar contract for the construction of a Primary School in a community which, as we understand it, is particularly in need of the facility to a team of ‘contractors’ known much more for their exploits in the entertainment industry than in the building sector was an unacceptable error in judgement. It can make the case (at least to itself) that the awarding of gifts of that nature to friends and political allies is not altogether uncommon in Guyana. That said, the outcome of the granting of this particular gift now resembles a ‘sick joke’ on the people of Guyana.
The contract had been awarded, first, in 2021, decidedly controversially, and to the boisterous protestations of critics of the decision whose contention was that it strained credulity to suggest that a group of individuals who had, all along, set out their stall as entertainers were the best contractors to be entrusted with such a project. That said, of course, we in Guyana, specifically our politicians, are known to be pretty ‘gung ho’ in the awarding of state contracts, with the construction sector being the one most ‘picked on’ in this regard. Here, it is no secret that over time and across political administrations, building construction had become governments’ most lavish train and, needless to say, an open sepulchre, a gravy train through which political favours/loyalties were compensated at the expense of the public treasury.
So that while it would be politically churlish to lay all of the blame for this unseemly behaviour at the door of the incumbent political administration, one feels (on the basis of the available evidence) that this particular one ‘takes the cake’ in the matter of ‘playing monopoly’ with the public treasury. We now have a situation in which the contract for the construction of the primary school, which was first awarded in November 2021 and the completion timeline, which has been twice extended, has been granted a further extension. As these things usually go, one can reasonably assume that the designated contractors have been the recipients of at least partial payment of the contract sum in circumstances where not a single child has, up to this time, been seated on a single bench in a single classroom.
Whatever the nature of the discourses – if, indeed, any discourses are ensuing between the regional administration and the Government of Guyana, it would be interesting if the Republic’s taxpayers can, somehow, benefit from a ‘briefing’ about the Bamia Primary School debacle. If the Bamia Primary School debacle now provides more than sufficient reason for the creation of a body free of political control to exercise complete jurisdiction over the tender process, such a course of action is likely to encounter enormous pushback since an autonomous tender regime takes away from those who rule the prerogative of assigning contracts and such ‘perks’ as attend that privilege. Here we are faced with a situation in which, for as long as the political administration in office – whichever one that may be – continues to ride roughshod over the tender process, the ‘gravy train’ will continue to ‘chug along’ at the expense of the wider populace.
