I do hope that the whip will be cracked, if circumstances necessitate

Feb 05, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

On Thursday, both SN and KN carried decent-sized articles of the visit by the Hon. Minister of Education, Ms. Priya Manickchand to the University of Guyana to have her say on the state of works projects and contractors’ performance. She had a sharp mouthful to share, which I endorse fully.
The minister was unhappy with the state of three projects; so are many Guyanese on many other costly, time-sensitive projects, including yours truly. All three of the UG projects are behind schedule. There was some reference to rain and materials. If I remember well, this place was scorching hot for much of last year, with the rains inundating only after around mid-November and since; and there has to be forward planning (materials requirements) for projects of this size. Neither of those lame excuses hold water. They lead to fast money (advances) and slow delivery (delays and excuses), which have plagued and hampered us in different ways. They continue through costly overruns. They persist in one project after another, through lost time; our contractors and citizens operate by their own clock and in their own time zone. But time is money, which means that lost time must be made up later by somebody, and the bill for that extra time has to be honoured by the Guyanese taxpayer. I am with Minister Manickchand, who followed in the footsteps of her political brethren, and spiritual comrade, Bishop Juan Edghill of Public Works, who made the rounds with one verbal firestorm after another relative to the dilatory and defaulting Chinese contractors still to make good on that expansion project at the CJIA. It just can’t get done by any government.
Editor, these crooked non-performing contractors, whether local or foreign, must be taught a lesson. Minister Edghill unleashed some turbulence for a time, but has since gone quiet, eerily so. A progress report from Minister Edghill would enlighten as to where things stand today; and if any hard actions have been taken for failure to deliver. This must be done, if only for deterrent purposes. Along the same lines, I am delighted that the Education Minister has raised (threatened) the spectre of contract termination. But, like I submitted through another medium, matters must not end there, if such is the place where the project concludes. We have to do more. Non-performing contractors must be made to return some of the funds advanced. Think of this: the unfinished job has to be continued and completed by some other contractor, and his total charges are not going to be so convenient as to align smoothly with the residual (unpaid) amount of the original contract. It is highly likely that the price to get the project done is going to cost more than the first, incomplete project. The defaulter has to be held accountable and responsible for that difference.
Now this brings me to a nasty place, but one that is an integral part of contract awards, political plums, and party gratitude. It is the spoils system that rewards those who were there, with resources, with cash, with moral support. I speak of elections and campaign trails and campaign financing, and the whole works. I don’t care which political party is in government, the people who have been good to it stands to be most favourably and tenderly treated. In the former, they get the projects; through the latter they are coddled and condoned. I would trust that the two Honourable Ministers (Edghill and Manickchand) are not engaging in strong talk for the public record. I do hope that they are serious and that the whip will be cracked, if circumstances necessitate. Get this thing done on time or get out of here.
Last, it would be helpful to know how these delayed and troublesome projects finalize: the timing, the total cost, and the engineer(s) who provided certification. In that way, the Hon. Attorney General could be well-equipped to take matters from there, should the projects fall apart and collapse, for then he would know who to go after to recover extra expenses or, better yet, get them jailed for a long time, and banned from future state projects.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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