Dear Editor,
On Tuesday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, scores of senior public officials were brought together and lectured to by Vice President Jagdeo, who is also the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party.
He talked about transparency and spent some time referring to the award of contracts and expressed the concern that certain contractors were no more than a front for one or two families. If given the opportunity, the Parliamentary oversight committee will have a field day getting answers to what appears to be a wild spending spree surrounded by what is perceived to be skulduggery.
In his presentation, the VP claimed that the Opposition was highlighting flawed contracts. He went on to state that only 5% of these many, many contracts were faulty. In other words, he is suggesting perfection with respect to 95% of Contracts awarded since 2020 August to date.
Dear Editor and Citizens, I ask the VP to identify half of those good contracts that is 47.5% of Contracts awarded after August 2020 to date. Information should provide the following for the benefit of the public.
(1) Evidence that the advertisements were in conformity with existing laws, regulations and procedures.
(2) The identification of the successful bids who are transparent and in accordance with the existing regulations.
(3) Evidence that ownership and control of these several contractors did not show a pattern of ownership and control in many companies.
(4) Evidence that completion dates were satisfied.
(5 Who or which agency certified the satisfactory completion, and I emphasise the word, satisfactory.
(6) The name and registered Business address of these Contractors and who are the Principal Officers
(7) A list of those who did shoddy works and incomplete works since 2020 August and those who were purportedly blacklisted are part of those obtaining new Contracts, and whether to state these million-billion dollars Contracts were satisfactorily completed within the period agreed to and whether the Government will agree to have a group of experienced persons to visit these projects to determine whether the Contracts were satisfactorily, I repeat satisfactorily completed.
Dear Citizens and Editor, that is all for now. The VP’s statement is clear that 95% of these contracts are in order.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Elder
