The name, blame, shame exercise at State House last Tuesday, Nov. 12 was long overdue, not in terms of the method the President undertook, but in the context of accountability of the public purse. The point has been clearly made: fire up or get fired. Notable absentees are those performing the Gas to Shore Project which is more than 4 months behind schedule-actually, it is 1 year lagging. And where was Critic ?
The country is pervaded by a toxic culture of sloppiness and bribery where government people do not do their jobs efficiently. Combined with a predominant culture of ‘nobody cares’ the general populace – especially the poor who have no ‘connections’- suffer. The fact that the President has to undertake such a task clearly illustrates that he has a no-nonsense, low tolerance approach to those who acquire state funds and cannot perform jobs as stipulated in their respective contractual agreement.
Not only should physical work be evaluated by His Excellency, but social services are woefully clumsy as almost no public servant performs with any semblance of alacrity. After 3 decades of Independence there is much difficulty in the areas of passport, NIS, health care. A complete overhaul with new regulations and personnel is the way forward, but the sector that needs a complete rebirth is first and foremost the police Force.
Finally, the President must look at the source of many failed contracts accompanied by the inevitable shoddy work and cost over-runs: The Procurement Commission. Many contractors do not have the equipment, engineering skills, labor force, along with reliable material supply and contingency plans to complete their respective projects while there are other contracts in the pipeline that need investigated. Remember the longest journey begins with the first step.
Leyland Chitlall Roopnaraine
