Latest update June 25th, 2026 12:41 AM
Overpayments to contractors unacceptable – APNU
– Shadow Minister to write AG on status of Engineering Act
Shadow Minister of the political opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Joseph Harmon, has condemned the numerous instances where ministries have been summoned before the Public Accounts Committee to answer for overpayments to engineers and contractors for construction projects.
And as such, he will be writing to the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall to ascertain the status of the Engineering Act and why moves have not been made to proceed with it at the Parliamentary level.
Harmon maintains that not only government must be held accountable for this unacceptable behaviour but also engineers who fail to deliver on the work for which they are paid.
Former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran had made recent calls for the implementation of an internal audit system to police the accounting systems of the Ministries daily. But while Harmon does not negate the benefits of this system, he expressed the belief that persons intentionally craft ways in which they can circumvent the systems with which they must conform.
“I believe internally there must be some system of requisition. Invariably, if you check at the ministries which had problems of accounting adoration rather than conformation to systems, there have been a lot of moves by persons to subvert the system for their own personal benefit. As it relates to the position of the Engineering Act, I spoke with some engineers. One engineer, Mr. Terry Fletcher said that the Act should be at the office of the Attorney General. Fletcher has done extensive work on the Act as well.”
The Member of Parliament added, “As I indicated to you, I will follow it up. Fletcher has explained to me that not much has been done to get the Act in the Parliament as we never had a major collapse in construction. So the authorities in the government have been slow to put the revised Act in place. But if you add up all the problems that we have with engineering, we have gone beyond the stage of expecting a collapse; we have gone to a catastrophic stage and I will press for this Engineering Act to be passed. As such, I will write formally to Nandlall asking what the status of the Act is and why we have not proceeded with it.”
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