Seeking value for money

Sep 15, 2012 Editorial

Some years ago, after an announcement that the Marriott brand was coming to Guyana, there was need for a sewer main to be diverted. The contract was awarded to Courtney Benn Contracting Services. The contractor started the work and suddenly the government pulled the contract.
When questioned, President Bharrat Jagdeo said that Guyana had lost the technical capability to undertake the project. That project merely entailed digging ditches and laying the mains which had already been imported by the Courtney Benn Contracting Services. It therefore took a long time for President Jagdeo to realize that the contractor did not have the skills.
It turned out that the people who influenced that decision were part of the Marriott team and they wanted a piece of the action. They were after financial rewards.
The job was eventually done but when one looks at what is considered a professional job one sees a pitiful case of a section of the main running into the Demerara River and being almost swept aside by the tides.
President Jagdeo might have been wrong on that occasion but he was certainly correct when one now examines the contractors who have been entrusted with certain tasks. On Wednesday, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, said that one contractor who won an award for the four-lane East Coast Demerara Highway did such a shoddy job that some of the work has to be undone and redone.
We know of many such cases and we actually blamed the administration for awarding the contracts to incompetents. We noted the action of the Central Tender and Procurement Administration. Indeed, we were led to believe that some of the tenders were specially selected.
Then we found that government had a penchant for awarding the contracts to the lowest bidder. It is often said that cheaper is not necessarily better. Those who bid cheap are often people who want a toe in the door. More often than not, they do as much work as the money would allow, then seek extensions to their contracts.
Some of them were so bad that at one time, the government publicly announced that it was prepared to blacklist contractors who did shoddy work, and did. But it would seem that they were so many that in the end it might have warranted blacklisting just about all of them. So it is that many who do shoddy work in one location still get contracts.
The Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, keeps saying that she wants value for money. She says that she recognizes the importance of a job well done. Just this week she adopted a strategy which was attempted in the past but was never successfully implemented. This is the case of entrusting the monitoring of the contract to the contractor.
It was done at Bartica and it worked because the people were adamant that they wanted a good product. They knew that it is not often that they enjoy the benefit of developmental works; that the city often takes priority.
The residents went so far as to actually stop a portion of the work when they found that the work was not entirely in keeping with the specifications. The same thing did not work at Wakenaam where the contractor told the residents that they “could do what the hell (they) liked”, that he was being paid for whatever he did.
Well Minister Manickchand has adopted this approach. She has asked the community to monitor some works being undertaken at Turkeyen. And this may work. Ms Manickchand has already accused the contractors of doing shoddy work. And she knows them.
Surely, she would ensure that complaints from the new watchers would be duly dealt with. If she adopts the policy of her colleague in the Works Ministry and sacks the incompetent contractor then the nation may see the start of a policy of forcing value for money. And that is what has been talked about for as long as one can remember.

Latest News

Seeking value for money

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

The wait is over, all roads lead to KMTC for their Grand Boxing Day...

Xhiya Hercules – flipping the script towards...

Road Warriors, Bent Street, Team Cruel &...

Deol maiden hundred outshines Matthews’ as...

Moraikobai village two days football competition...

BCB thanks cricket fraternity for strong support...

Features/Columnists

Merry Christmas, Ya Filthy Animals!

Breaking the Chains of Poverty: A need for political will

Christmas – reality and possibility

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]

Seeking value for money

Share this:

Related

Similar Articles

The Glenn Lall Show | December, 2nd, 2024

Follow on Tik Tok @Glennlall

THE BLUNT OF THE DAY

Sports

Features/Columnists

Publisher’s Note

Weekend Cartoon

Bridge Watch

Demerara Harbour Bridge

> Berbice Bridge […]