Dear Editor,
I went on a listening and grounding move at the Yarrowkabra Creek for the signing of the contract for the reconstruction of the Linden/Soesdyke Highway for USD169 million or GUYD33.8 billion on the 27/8/2024. As the President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana saw me in the crowd, and started his target practice, it was clear that some kind of fear is lingering around his confidence of winning the upcoming 2025 election.
I listened attentively as the President tried to destroy the image of the Coalition for their actions in government 2015 – 2020 and came to realize there is a full campaign taking place with state funded contracts as the means to pull votes of young contractors competing for jobs. While some of his utterances were truthful of what had taken place, the measurement of what his government had done in four years and what the Coalition did in five couldn’t stand up to scrutiny when you take into account the revenues expended by both the Coalition and the PPP.
The APNU+AFC spent around US$6,028.94B; the PPP, after this year, will spend about US$16,116,604B, a difference of US$10,087,624B more than the Coalition. The combined total will be GUY$2,017,524,800,000 and the key difference between the two is oil revenues. Editor, the PPP would thus be able to do far more than the Coalition – that is the reality. The oil contract has become profitable for the PPP government and they would not change it although they said they would. I must give the President some credit for a good political dance, focusing on me, to send his political messages. Luckily, I am not thin skinned or fearful of anyone.
As the President called on me to verify if roads are being built in the area, I said yes, because I am a believer in truthfulness. He gained political energy, but retrogressed and went into depth to dig and find faults of the past administration which gave me the perception that the PPP is somewhat afraid of a party that they claim is not alive. Is it not funny?
I would like to let the President know, with all the talks of development, a lot of his projects are faulty and billions are being wasted. Please note the maintenance cost will also be high in the village of Yarrowkabra and other villages on the Highway. We are already seeing roads deteriorating. Contractors and engineers need to be questioned or answer for poor works done with hard earned taxpayers’ dollars.
Sincerely,
Michael Carrington
AFC Vice Chairman
