Region 8 Toshao demands govt. return money village used to build bridge

May 22, 2025 News

Kaieteur News- A Region Eight Toshao, Tarcellia John, on Tuesday, requested the return of some $15 million that her village, Kopinang, used to build a bridge.

Region 8 Toshao demands govt. return money village used to build bridge

Toshao Tarcellia John

John made the request during the ongoing National Toshaos Council (NTC) Conference at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Lilieendaal, Greater Georgetown. She decided to ask back for the cash after Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, during his address to the conference, said that villages must not use any of their money from the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) fund to build roads or bridges. “…And by the way, some Toshaos from Moruca had raised this with me, you don’t have to use your LCDS money to build any road or fence or any of the bridges in the area. We will carry that on the regional or the national budget, we will deal with those, so don’t use your LCDS money”, Jagdeo assured the Toshaos.

Following his presentation, there was an interactive session and John used the opportunity to ask for the return of her village money. She said, “Mr. VP, I didn’t know that, we didn’t know that we are not supposed to use our LCDS money.” She further explained that her village had used $15 million from their allocation to build a bridge. John then told the VP that she would like “to get back the money spent.”

In response, Jagdeo said he instructed the Ministry of Public Works to return the village’s money immediately. “Give her back her money. Yes, give her back her money. So, I want Public Works to give her back the money”, Jagdeo instructed. Junior Minister of Public Works, Deodat Indar, then interrupted him by saying, “Chief, we put out 29 bids,” but the VP shut him down with a stern response. “No, before she leaves here, she must get back her money, this week. It’s unconscionable she has to spend $ 15 million to build a bridge, yeah”, Jagdeo told Indar.

Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar

Additionally, Toshao John noted that the $15 million bridge was built by people from her village and raised concerns that government contractors might not be doing proper infrastructural work in the hinterland regions. “…The contractors that are coming from outside building bridges in Region 8 during this rainy season and during high water season, these bridges would wash away,” John explained.

Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai, backed her up, saying that indeed the villagers are capable of building better bridges than the outside contractors. “Mr. Vice President, I am trying to validate the Toshao’s plea because Bamboo Creek had built a bridge that is standing up, really good bridge, including Sand Hill, never before we have seen a bridge stood up like that in high water, dry season, and is concrete structure”, Sukhai said.

This resulted in the Vice President instructing the Ministry of Public Works to give bridge-building contracts to the villages instead of private contractors. Minister Indar again interrupted by pointing out, “Chief, the 29 bridges that you instructed from Santa Fe straight up to Paramakatoi are out for tender, it’s $8.6 billion.”

Once again, the Vice President shut him down and instructed that the ministry cancel all the tenders it has put out for bridges for Region 8. “Leh me see if any is in Region Eight, cancel the tender and work with the village council, work with the villages,” Jagdeo told Indar and the Ministry of Public Works officials attending the conference. He further instructed, “You find out if the village can do them and award them only. If the village don’t want them then you go out to tender.”

Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo.

Other concerns raised by John included a promise the Public Works Ministry had made to fix Kopinang’s Airstrip. “I would really want it do this year because we can’t wait anymore, same thing I hear last year and today again ah raising it”, John told the VP. Jagdeo asked that she raise the issue with the Public Works Minister again on Wednesday because at the time, he was not present at the conference. “…Last year, we had a discussion and they assured us that a lot of these things will be completed. So that is why I wanted to hear him”, Jagdeo assured John. He continued: “I want to deal with the issue when he is around because he made some commitments, we had a long discussion last year, the roads and stuff I can deal with that now (Tuesday) because Indar is here and the bridges”.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News