A worrying issue

Sep 01, 2011 Editorial

Governments must explain more than anyone else, the decisions they make. They must justify these decisions or face some damning accusations. In Guyana, the government is being asked repeatedly to justify some of the contracts awarded for structures that not only collapse long before their lifespan, but also that seem to cost way too much.
This high cost has long been a bone of contention. The government insists that the contracts are awarded by way of the most transparent practices after a public tender. Before the contracts are tendered, the government is advised about the suggested cost of the project by way of what is called an Engineer’s Estimate.
This simply means that an engineer assesses the project, examines the cost of the materials for the project, the labour cost, the cost of equipment, and in the end he presents these figures which should aid in the selection of the successful bidder. All of this may seem the thing to do, but given the level of corruption in Guyana, one would not be surprised if the engineer’s estimate is padded to suit the contractor.
Many believe that the estimates are leaked to contractors who then submit bids within the range of the estimates. There are bids that appear to be inordinately low, and that may be because the contractor submitted based on realistic estimates. More often than not, the low bid is rejected as being unrealistic.
The public is now hamstrung, because it finds great difficulty in challenging the high bids. At the same time, the contractors seem to be doing extremely well to the point that they refuse private contracts when the builder challenges the high cost.
One senior Government official, cognizant of the accusations of high cost, actually queried whether there is a solution to the problem. There seems to be none, but it may not be too much to ask, to have independent engineers reevaluate estimates.
There are those who may contend that the examination of the estimates and the contracts is inconsequential. However, when one considers that money is a relatively scarce commodity, then one can readily appreciate that every cent saved in one section of the economy could go to some other section.
So many sections simply need more money. The issue of teachers’ pay has been perennial. Guyana lost almost all of its good teachers to places like the United States, the Caribbean, and even Botswana. Teachers simply felt that they were not rewarded for what they were expected to do so they left. The result is an education system in tatters.
Never in the history of the country have passes in Mathematics and English been so atrocious. Never before have so many people been leaving school as illiterates, and never before have there been so many remedial programmes that seem to be going nowhere.
Things have reached the stage where Guyana has been seeking to recruit teachers from overseas, paying so much more than they would pay the locals. Some of the money filched from contracts could have averted some of what is happening today. But nobody in the administration seems keen to listen to the ordinary man and his solutions.
Perhaps, as former United States ambassador to Guyana, Roland Bullen noted, a surfeit of money may not be a good thing for Guyana. In a WikiLeaks cable he expressed alarm that Guyana may actually enjoy a windfall from oil discoveries. Sparking the alarm was the level of corruption in the society.
The suggestion is that the corruption has reached all the way to the top, certainly not an accusation that the government would be proud of. The administration came into office with a slogan of ‘Lean and clean’. Immediately after acceding to office the government terminated the services of those who were perceived to be in receipt of super salaries.
Today, people in some quarters are being paid more than their counterparts whom they replaced. This should apply to people in the critical sectors. Sadly, this is not the case. We boast of improved infrastructure, but the system allowed for the infrastructure programme to cost as much as three times what it should have.
So what do we recommend?
A special unit to review contracts, and it should have the power to cancel awards at the first sign of corruption.

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