911 Saga…Rohee should be surcharged for wasting government’s money

May 12, 2014 News

– APNU’s Joe Harmon

“It just shows the contempt with which they hold the Guyanese population, that they could just take all of that money and pay some foreign body to come and tell you something that we all know.”
That was the assertion of A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Executive Member Joseph Harmon as he articulated his concerns over the services of foreign experts that Home Affairs Minister and General Secretary of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) Clement Rohee procured to address the much complained about non-functioning 911 emergency system.
In March of this year, Rohee had announced that experts were flown in at a cost of US$20,000 to address the inefficient 911 system and had presented a report to him addressing the situation.

General Secretary of the PPP Clement Rohee

At a subsequent PPP press conference, the General Secretary outlined that he had completed the reading of the document/ report, which he deemed as “highly technical”, and said that further advice is needed to make a definitive pronouncement on which way to proceed.
“It is not a policy or political document written for the eyes of a politician so to speak. It is useful for informing the policymaker but then that policymaker has to have additional, local technical advice, and that is what we are seeking to get now… local technical advice on the advice that was given by the foreign experts. So while it might sound as though we are getting advice on advice, I think it is necessary for us to do that.”
Harmon however is of the view that Rohee is too “incompetent to be spending Guyana’s money; he will go outside looking for foreign experts before he looks internally. I don’t know who does business like that.”
He said that GT&T outlined that the breakdown is within the police station, and stressed that “we don’t need to look for any technical problems; he has to make sure that the phones are working and people answering it.”
According to Harmon, if there is a need for experts, the people are right here.
He continued that “Rohee should be surcharged for that money that he had spent on the foreign experts without even consulting people.”
GT&T had said that they were not “privy to the consultants” assessments and conclusion that presumably have been submitted to the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
Harmon stressed, “These guys always cut some deal with somebody, that’s what is going on with them. He brought foreign experts to say what? When the phone rings at the police station let them answer it, that’s what you want to pay US$ 20,000 for experts to tell you that?”
“Change the instruments if the instruments are bad and monitor the police for a while to see what will happen and once you put the heat on them they are going to be performing,” said Harmon.

APNU Executive Member Joseph Harmon

According to the APNU Member of Parliament, “I personally called the 911 emergency number couple nights ago to report a matter and within seconds the person answered the phone and within minutes the police were right on the spot, so the system can work.”
The APNU Executive said “Rohee is an incompetent manager and he does not know how to do things properly.”
Rohee, in addressing the 911 issue blamed GT&T for the calls not going through, citing that it’s a technical problem which they have to fix.
However, the telephone company responded by categorically stating that it is not at fault.
GT&T said that its checks have revealed with great frequency the disappearance of handsets from the termination points of 911 lines at various Police Stations and the removal of the handset off the hook. It also found that there were no answers by personnel during standard working hours.