We are having a rerun of pre-2015 all over

Apr 22, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Reference is made to letter by Thomas Whitehead (April 19) on economic, business, and financial stagnancy in the country. The writer is right that money is not circulating and the working class is still suffering as under the coalition. Also, there is very little benefit for small business under this government and regular contractors are being sidelined and by-passed. People voted for change on March 2, 2020, for better governance. Have they gotten the change they expected or wanted? Has the government tried to renegotiate the oil contract?
As one person intelligently summed up the electoral situation: It was a very difficult choice for voters to make in March 2020 – between a perceived racist, corrupt regime (party) that was on the verge of authoritarianism versus a very corrupt alternative with no internal party democracy. The election results showed that a very slim majority rejected the authoritarian leaning perceived racist incumbent, replacing it with the corrupt. Now, there is much talk by people on the street about widespread corruption, perhaps worse than it was in 2015 before the change of regime. Business people are complaining that they have to pay to play. People are also complaining that one person appears to be running the show making almost all the decisions. We are having a rerun of pre-2015 all over. Politicians never learn.
As under the previous regime, companies owned by ministers, their family members, relatives, and friends are benefiting from the bulk of contracts. Take the case of the Eccles Bypass road, the first half of which was done without tendering, in clear violation of contractual rules.
Contractors complain that contracts are being awarded at several other Ministries, as emergency works, to persons connected to a political party without quotations and tendering when these works are not really emergencies. Is that different from under the coalition? Traditional contractors with a history of performing these kinds of infrastructure works are being bypassed in preference for favored contractors. As expected, they are complaining. Consequently, money is confined to among a few companies without full trickle down and spillover effects that should have followed from government expenditures and contracts. Government financial activities are not having the full spin and circular effects they should. As a result, the working class is left without many benefits. People are complaining that there is a return to the kind of corruption that existed before May 2015.
Yours truly,
Sharmila Ally

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