A disgusting habit that has become entrenched

Jan 22, 2014 Editorial

There is a term called wasted money, directly related to 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.
Recently there was a period of heavy 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 eight years ago 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.
Today, the tons of garbage have increased to unsettling proportions and the waterways are even more clogged. Added to this is the ongoing saga of unavailable as well as non-working pumps. One wonders if we really understand the potential consequences.
Several years ago, the government had called on the people in areas where projects are being undertaken to supervise the various projects. But even that had not often met with the approval of the people undertaking the work.
For starters, the contractors refused to explain their actions to the people for whom they were executing the project. 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 their part, the contractors simply said that the people could talk all they want they (contractors) were getting paid. The Works Ministry, having had to deal with too numerous cases of contractors providing slipshod work, instituted a policy of fining errant ones. In some cases they have even been 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. The sugar factory at Skeldon, the Supenaam stelling and the Enmore packaging plant are all virtual white elephants. They essentially failed, or in the case of the latter, did not have the desired impact; and these failures occurred as soon as these facilities were put into operation.
The government was forced to spend even more millions to make that stelling and the Skeldon factory operable.
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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