THE DRILL SQUARE CONTROVERSY

Nov 27, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The President is getting bad advice. This is happening because he is surrounding himself with novices, rather than hardened professionals who understand how to deal with political controversies and with the media.
The President should never have gotten entangled in the controversy over Homestretch Developers Inc. – the special purpose company which was established to carry out works at D’Urban Park. He should have left the explanations for those involved with the company.
The President has muddied himself by seeking to provide explanations. The explanations have done more harm than good. It has left the President in a most embarrassing situation. The statement/report issued by the President’s Office on its website and referenced in social media reporting, quoted the President. The President should have left this matter to an official statement by those concerned.
The explanations offered by the President are full of holes. It says that a special purpose company was formed because at the time, no provision was made for the works in the Budget. This is ludicrous.
The works at D’Urban Park commenced soon after the government came to power. The works at D’Urban Park was part of the clean-up of the city. One Chinese firm was involved in clearing a section of the area. The company promised to maintain that sector as part of its contribution to the clean-up efforts.
The budget excuse is pitiful. The national Budget for 2015 was passed three months after the government took office. The clearing of D’Urban Park had already commenced. Private contractors were doing the clearing. The government had sufficient time to get its estimates in the Budget.
Secondly, the Budget for 2016 was an early Budget and again the government had enough time to get estimates into that second Budget to undertake the works.
The government also appointed a special adviser for this and other works. The government must now say whether that person was paid by the special company or whether that person was and is still paid by the government.
The government must indicate why it established a special private company and not a state-owned company. What was the rationale behind this move?
It is widely suspected that the government wanted this entire project to be financed via donations from the private sector. It was still in campaign mode, soliciting donations for government works, something that is unheard of in any jurisdiction.
This is also what is happening with the bus, bicycles and boats project. A government ministry, the Ministry of Social Cohesion, is effectively soliciting private donations of buses, books and bicycles. This is what it is doing.
It is the same modus operandi that was being used for D’Urban Park. The government wanted free money to build D’Urban Park. The establishment of the private, special purpose company was a means of soliciting donations for the project, and to undertake the works. This is why it was formed, not because of any snafu with the Budget.
The donations from the private sector were going well until, most likely, they slowed because the private sector was not pleased with what it was getting in return. As such, the works slowed. It slowed even more after Stabroek News published images of huge cracks in the wood used to build some of the stands.
The government by this time had turned the project into a military drill square. Panic stepped in out of fear that the works would not be completed on time for May 26, 2016. The Ministry of Public Infrastructure was called in to complete the works and it spent hundreds of millions of dollars, which were not budgeted, in completing the site in time for the May 26 event.
The private company has not published any accounts as to what it received and what it spent. It is not known whether it kept any financial records. It is required by law to table certain records as an incorporated company. It will be asked, sooner or later, to account for the monies it collected and spent. The problem, also, is who will pay those contractors who have not been paid so far for work done.
This whole project is a sordid mess. The President should not have gotten involved.

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