Credit should be given where it belongs

Nov 02, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
I refer to an article carried in Kaieteur News titled, “Buxton Health Centre gets a face lift.” The article stated that the Government of Guyana renovated the health centre to the tune of $1.5 million.
It is disheartening that the Government of Guyana, through the Ministry Of Health has taken all the credit for the renovation of the Buxton Health Centre, as noted in the following quote from the article, “According to Dr Bheri Ramsaran, Minister within the Ministry of Health, the facility was in need of renovations, thus the Ministry responded swiftly.”
It should be noted that the Buxton-Friendship Health Centre was not rehabilitated by the Government of Guyana as stated in the press release. It was rebuilt by Jay Bee Medical Services International, Inc. (JBMSI), a Maryland based non- profit organisation. On June 3rd 2004, JBMSI laid the foundation for the health centre with a ceremony, which was covered by SN.
In attendance were Prime Minister Sam Hinds, leader of the opposition Robert Corbin, Allan Munroe and others. Since the breaking of ground JBMSI, whose members are mostly overseas-based Buxtonians, spent over US$70,000 to rebuild the centre. The intention of JBMSI was to build a fully equipped health centre in Buxton to service Buxton-Friendship and the surrounding communities.
In 2005, work on the centre was suspended when the contractor attached to the project, Troy Phillips, was murdered by gunmen in the village. Subsequently work was resumed but again was halted by Region Four officials, who prevented JBMSI workers from entering the building to perform any work.
No one doubts that the Government spent an estimated $1.5 million dollars to complete the health centre to make it operational, but before such work was done by the Government I made repeated attempts to have work done by the region to make the building operational. While in Guyana earlier this year I visited the regional office in Triumph on the East Coast to discuss specific tasks that needed to be done. These include electricity to the building, water supply and security among others.
I also made several telephone calls from Washington DC to the acting Regional Executive Officer (REO) to follow up on the progress of the work. Calls were also made to the doctor on site to find out the progress of the work. Also while visiting Guyana this year I visited the office of Mr. Roopchand a fellow Buxtonian, who works in the Ministry of Finance to discuss my concerns about the health centre. I left my cell phone number with his secretary but never received a call from him.
The Government involvement in completing some of these tasks came after failed attempts to have them completed by the region.
There were a few members of the government with whom I spoke expressing my frustrated attempts to have the centre completed in time for the Buxton reunion in July-August of this year.
On the recent visit of President Bharrat Jagdeo to the Washington DC area, during the question and answer period I brought to his attention how disappointed I was that the Minister of Health, in recent statements gave the government all the credit for building the health centre in Buxton, which was in fact started and almost completed by JBMSI.
I asked him to apprise the minister of this fact. Disappointingly, a few weeks later, GINA again gave the credit to the Government for rehabilitating of the centre.
George B. Abrams

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