Dear Editor,
The units to be created in each ministry to specifically evaluate the execution of all contracts are a most welcome course of action by President Ali. No infrastructure project since the Government took office in 2020 has been satisfactorily completed within the deadline. Unjustifiable delays, coupled with substandard works have proliferated The Land of Many Waters; notwithstanding fake bonds to outright swindle of the country’s money, a phenomenon in which both past and present regimes have embraced.But this excursion into the legal platform ought to have been initiated by the Attorney General Anil Nandlall himself as he is the chief guardian of all legal undertakings by the gov’t. The erudite AG added that this is being undertaken in order to assess the performance of the contractors in the discharge of their contractual duties and obligations, however, in the local lexicon of things: has the horse already boltedfrom the stable while doors are about to be installed?
What will become of the Procurement Commission(with its $800,000 monthly income misfits)? This body is ostensibly tasked with the evaluation selection of applicants in the awarding of contracts; many of which carry hefty price tags bordering on a billion! In reality a select sector of its constituency have catapulted into the nouveau- riche heights so that they can in turn be of use to the ruling party no matter the risk to the public purse from dodgy work. Procurement Commission? What a laugh in awarding a close to billion contracts to someone who never built a fowl pen to build a pump station!
Will these new units morph into waste of money and time? The President is obviously naïve to assume that these units will recover money and bring those guilty to justice as these units will be staffed by predominantly PPP apparatchiks and idiots including his own party faithful, thus it begs the question: will PPP appointed officials prosecute PPP awarded contractors? Not a single gov’t official has ever been found guilty and jailed for stealing state funds, even though mountains of evidence exists therefore the obvious inference is clear :the kith and kin concept is very much the deciding force here.
Projects in Guyana generally encompass varying degrees of crookedness and stupidity coupled with nepotism and party links. The Yarokabra Glass Project,Mazaruni Hydro, National Service, Skeldon Sugar Factory, Amalia Falls were all bereft of the technical, professional and managerial skills to evaluate, monitorand execute these undertakings. What we witnesstoday is literally the proverbial execution of works using massive sums available on what is a clear unacceptable spending spree covered with the cloud of corruption. . This bureaucratic implant announced by the AG at the behest of the President is not only a weight but at worst an attempt to deceive, and insult to the intelligence of our people. The words of the witty roman poet, Juvenal, (55 – 127 AD) are worth quoting: quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Who will guard the guards?
Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine
