A case of willful waste

Feb 12, 2011 Editorial

There is a term called wasted money because when money is spent on some things and the desired result is not achieved. For example, there have been road works that did not last. There have also been shoddy constructions that either necessitated total demolition and reconstruction or were left to deteriorate further.
Wasted money is a term also attached to those constructions that remained white elephants because the authorities did whatever they had to without finding out whether their efforts would have attracted the attention of the people.
All too often the government spends money without attracting the desired results because more often than not, there is no consultation. Politicians no longer walk among people as they once did when the electoral system was different. And the people, being who they are, cannot be too bothered by issues that do not affect them directly.
People do not readily accept that which they have no need for. Governments therefore did not need to spend money where it was not needed. That is wasted money.
It is for this reason that we cannot understand while there continues to be the issue of wasted money. There was a time when Guyana did not have much of a disposable income so for the greater part, infrastructural works were rarely undertaken. We believe that we are witnessing the fallout from those days.
This week there was a period of prolonged rainfall and as could be expected the roads were flooded because the waterways could not cope with the volume of water that descended on the land. In the aftermath of the floods of 2005 the government set about releasing large sums of money to clear blocked waterways and to clear tons of garbage that had been dumped willy nilly, sometimes in the very waterways that had to be cleared.
To its credit, the government called on the people in areas where projects are being undertaken to supervise the projects. But even this has not often met with the approval of the people undertaking the work.
For starters, the contractors refuse to explain their actions to the people for whom they are executing the project. In one case, there was a road programme on Wakenaam. The people decided that since they were the beneficiaries and since it is not often that road works are undertaken they needed a proper job.
It turned out that they filed complaints with the authorities. For his part, the contractor simply said that they could talk all they want he was getting paid. The Works Ministry having had to deal with too numerous cases of contractors providing slip shod work, has instituted a policy of fining errant contractors. Sometimes these people are blacklisted.
However, the society with its paucity of skills ends up seeing these very people gaining employment in other sections of the labour force.
But there are more glaring cases of wasted money. There is the Supenaam stelling this is a virtual white elephant. It was fashioned by one of the more prominent contractors in the country but it failed as soon as it was put into operation.
The government must now spend even more money to make this stelling operable. Someone should be penalized but the government is more in a hurry to get the stelling into operation than it is to collect monies levied by way of penalties for the shoddy work.
There have been other such cases, including one in which a newly constructed stelling collapsed into the river.
But it is not only the government that is saddled with wasted money. Private people feel the brunt because in this case it is their money. Some buy cars that were fashioned to look like new but which had serious flaws. Within weeks of their purchase they end up either in the junk heap or mechanic shop.
This needs not be the case in any of the situations but then again, some things become habits and it could be that this is one habit that has become entrenched.

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