The Story within the Story…Dirty traffic cops and our supervising engineers  

Aug 28, 2016 News

---

By Leonard Gildarie

Over the past few weeks, the complaints against traffic cops and police roadblocks have risen.

So much so that I even saw a piece last week by columnist of Kaieteur News, Freddie Kissoon, who spoke of what appears to be organized shakedowns by a few dirty traffic ranks. They do this with the full blessings of their superiors.
I don’t want to believe what Freddie is saying, but it is clear that something is drastically wrong with our police force.
We have been providing increased training and investigators have been doing extremely well in cracking a number of high profile cases. Piracy seems almost at a standstill, and I hope that I am not speaking too soon. But the brutality of the capital crimes being committed – especially against teens and by young bandits – continue to shock my resolve. It appears that common sense has gone through the window.
I, too, have had experiences with police at the Houston Bridge, East Bank Demerara, and it has not been pleasant.
Almost every night, one is bound to see a line at Houston. At first I loved it. The police at work. But two experiences in recent times have me rethinking. One night, two weeks ago, around 11pm, I was stopped and asked to pull over by a rank.  It went like this.
“How you doing, Sir?”… ”I am good, and you?” … “Good, we have two barbecue tickets, you buying?”… ”No!”
The shocked rank gulped and curtly told me to proceed. Nobody asked for my documents.  I called the Commander’s office next day to complain. I have not heard back from them.
A few nights ago, I was pulled over again at Houston. I am convinced that my late working hours makes me look a little tipsy when I am tired. Fortunately, for me, I was not drinking that night.
The rank asked for my documents and finding that everything was in order then told me that it was his boss’ birthday the next day. It was clear what the anticipation in his eyes meant.
Really? I told him that I would be visiting Brickdam station the next day. He said his boss’ name was “Chittick” or something like that. I will leave this like that.
My colleagues at work have also complained of traffic cops abusing their authority, like pulling people over for doing 70 km in a 50 km zone.
The problem is that the drivers would swear that they were not speeding. Who are we to refute the speed guns? How do we know that it has not been cleared from the last driver that was caught? Is there a time on the speed gun that would verify that the reading pertains to the driver being stopped?
I am tempted to test the system. I do believe some traffic cops are rogues and they are really abusing their office.
Now, in recent years, the attention has risen against state contractors.
The abuses have been many. From cost overruns, to poor quality materials to roads and bridges that fall apart, the complaints have been many.
We harp on contractors but where are the engineers that oversee the work on behalf of the people of Guyana.
Too often, we see roads that fall apart and bridges that shift. Was it poor designing or poor supervision? Was it poor construction methods?
Whatever the reasons, the contractors have been blamed.
From conversations with the ministries and even the contractors, it appears that blame for poor quality work must also be laid squarely at the feet of the state’s supervision. We hear too often of young engineers graduating at the University of Guyana and thrown into the fields.
We hear of stories of many of them in the pay of contractors.
How is work done by contractors being supervised? How are payments approved? Do we check how much asphalt is being laid? Why are the roads collapsing?
Are we tolerating delays because the contracts allow for it? Is it becoming more of a norm than the exception for overruns?
We know of many cases in the past where millions of dollars set aside for cost overruns and other incidental expenses are invariably utilized because of some exceptional circumstances. It is the feeling that the “overruns” were just a front for contractors to draw more monies. It has been a grey area that no ministry has been willing to talk about and which has been a loophole for more monies to be paid.
We need to hold our engineers accountable for the quality and cost of our works. Tremendous efforts and expenses are being expended to prepare lengthy documents for tendering with contracts specific on how projects should be managed. Yet one gets the impression that these legal documents merely represent a procedure, and that it is a wild west situation when it comes to the prudent spending of our tax dollars.
The East Bank Demerara four-lane extension project is a classical example of all that can go wrong. From traffic management to delays and poor work, the problems have been many.
Why were contractors allowed so many get-of-jail cards? The delays have been causing considerable headaches for the thousands of commuters who are forced to traverse the East Bank Demerara roadway daily. That road project should be a harsh lesson of what should not be repeated. To be fair, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure has been doing a good job to bring the project to completion.
The bottom line is saving our tax dollars and doing what we were paid to do.

---

---