Dear Editor,
It is sad that the President of the fastest-expanding country in the world is publicly berating errant contractors, engineers, program managers, public servants and Ministers as shown in the YouTube video “President Ali reprimands Ministers and Contractors for projects that are behind schedule”. President Ali was clearly frustrated and disgusted on the many defaulting infrastructural works and services in different ministries. Unfortunately, none of the issues discussed in the video was unexpected. The media regularly reported on the President and the various Ministers, when visiting construction sites, scolding contractors for defaulting on contracts and poor-quality work. Now, “the chickens come home to roost”.
The design and construction of infrastructural works such as roads, schools, and hospitals follow well established processes and protocols. The key processes and protocols of certain infrastructural works such as schools, hospitals, and like-kind buildings are similar. Any misstep or breach in communication protocols in a process can significantly delay or even derail an infrastructural project. The video displays similarly gross incompetence, lack of knowledge of the processes and protocols, poor work habits, lackadaisicalness, and so on across all the project management teams. It is clear that each ministry with its own project management teams is not an efficient and effective way to manage like-kind infrastructural works. Under normal conditions in managing public infrastructural works, none of the issues in the video should even reach the desk of a Minister let alone the President. The President’s desire for timely deliverables of key parts of the PPP/C manifesto is disconnected from the work ethics, apathy and skill sets of the implementers.
The questions that arise are “what is the crux of the problems?” and “what is the solution?” The writer has provided the answers to these questions in previous articles in the news media. For convenience, the relevant parts of these articles are restated here. “The scale of infrastructure developmental projects is incongruent with the available technical human resources.” (SN January 29, 2023 “Contracting and project management are dysfunctional in these infrastructural works”). “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 program management unit (UPMU) to oversee the procurement and award of all contracts and the execution of 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.” (SN April 24, 2024 “Create umbrella infrastructure program management Unit to enable value for money and stymie corruption”). Some may say that the UPMU will be another bureaucratic unit but this need not be if, as stated, it is well structured and competently managed. Perhaps, the UPMU can be created with the mandate to only manage the various construction projects across all the Ministries.
President Ali has demonstrated that he is action-oriented and wants to deliver on his promises to the Guyanese people. He understands the problems he is facing and Guyanese should look forward for a comprehensive solution.
Sincerely,
Dr. Muniram Budhu
Professor Emeritus