KAIETEUR NEWS IS FORCING POSITIVE CHANGE

Jul 25, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News deserves some sort of an award for its investigative journalism into the state of projects within the Drainage and Irrigation Section. These reports have been the talking point in boardrooms and on the streets of Georgetown.
More importantly, they have elicited a response which indicates that despite what the naysayers may want us to believe, the reports are being taken seriously.
There has never been such a frenzied response, including one which told the newspaper to go to hell, as that which accompanied the publication of the reports into the multimillion dollar projects.
Immediately upon the publication of a report indicating that in excess of one hundred and fifty million dollars was set aside for a koker at De Willem, West Coast Demerara, there was a response by the Ministry of Agriculture calling for public monitoring for projects. The Ministry even indicated that it would publish the details of all contracts awarded.
Just a few days ago, we had public announcements of some projects within the same sector.
The Head of the Presidential Secretariat will now have his workload reduced since he was the one who previously used to announce the contracts approved by Cabinet, without the sort of details which was provided a few days ago.
This is another good thing that has emerged out of the Kaieteur News report. The Drainage and Irrigation Board’s decision to publicly announce contracts may now see the various sectors taking the lead in advertising the works they have commissioned and this will lead to much improved public awareness of projects in Guyana, as compared with the dribbling of information the media had to contend with at the weekly press briefings hosted by the Cabinet Secretary.
Kaieteur News and all media houses should continue to stay on top of this situation and to report on government projects. The media houses in Guyana ought to have been aware by now that almost all of these contracts are awarded through competitive bidding and that tenders for these bids are opened weekly at the office of the Central Tender Board.
This is public opening and the media should ensure that they are present to learn of what these bids are and the various contractors that bid for projects.
They should also keep a diary to follow up on these projects and to bring the details to the members of the public.
One of the things that has been disturbing in respect to many contracts and this has at times been featured in the reports of the Auditor General, is the issue of deviations from the contract price.
Often a contract is awarded for one sum but in the end, because of various circumstances, including additions to the original scope of works, the final contract sum is way in excess of what was originally awarded.
This poses a problem for transparency since contractors who may have lost out in the bid may wish to contend they could have done the entire project for less than what the final project cost. Greater care therefore needs to be exercised in respect to deviations of contracts and as far as possible the works should be completed as per original specifications and in accordance with the contract plans.
This column finds flaws with the view that the public should monitor projects. This is beyond the technical expertise of the layman.
What would be much better is for the consultants to the project to issue a public certificate, indicating that the projects have been satisfactorily completed.
This should be done at a public event to which the media should be invited.
The Kaieteur News should continue to bring to the attention of the public, the state of progress and the cost of the projects being undertaken throughout Guyana.
It should be not deterred by the comments originating from agents of the government that this newspaper is on a campaign against the Drainage and Irrigation Board.
That in itself is a compliment considering what has so far been unearthed by the reports in this newspaper.
Kaieteur News should continue to dig and dig deep. It should let us know also something about the technical and managerial expertise of some of these contractors who are being awarded these fantastic sums. We should be told whether these persons have the expertise to be given the sort of jobs that they are being allowed to execute.
It staggers even the imagination to think that if certain things are taking place in respect to these contracts which are now in the open, what is happening with those billion dollar contracts for which very little detailed public disclosures takes place.

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KAIETEUR NEWS IS FORCING POSITIVE CHANGE

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