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Manickchand at Bamia
Kaieteur News – The ink had barely dried on her new instruments of office when Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Priya Manickchand rolled up on the construction site of the new Bamia Primary School on Sunday.
She would later post on her ministry’s Facebook page: “Just visited the site of Bamia Primary School just outside of Linden in Region 10 which is being built by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. This school will be completed and the children will enjoy the benefits that the government intended. No ifs and buts. It will finish. The contractors have been made aware that they either finish the project in accordance with our newly set timelines or someone else will.” She added after meeting with the contractors: “We can’t continue that. So, we’ve just had a meeting with the contractor and their subcontractors and gone through all the things that need to be done, and we’re going to be putting someone here fully to make sure that these finishing works will be finished, because for the longest while I’ve been reading that they are close to finishing. But I’ve also seen other schools where there isn’t a push, and other buildings that the last leg of finishing takes forever. We can’t afford that here,” she related.
The unfinished Bamia Primary School has become more than just a construction site; it is a towering monument to nepotism, incompetence, and the kind of transactional governance that continues to blight this nation. Nearly four years on, the children of Bamia are still forced to squeeze into cramped and uncomfortable classrooms, while the unfinished facility stands nearby as an ugly reminder of how politics too often trumps the public interest.
From the very start, the project was riddled with controversy. It was not entrusted to capable builders with proven track records, but rather to a motley crew of entertainers-turned-contractors—handpicked not for their competence, but for their sympathies to the administration. The result is what we see today: delays, excuses, and a bungled project that should have been completed years ago. When citizens had complained and criticise the gifting of this contract to the company- St8ment Investment Inc, the government pushed back, justifying the contract award and even assuring that the contractor was capable.
It is ironic, yet instructive, that the very first task of Manickchand in her new portfolio was to march onto the Bamia school site and demand answers. Her predecessor, Sonia Parag, had all but abandoned the issue, never once demonstrating the urgency or care that the situation demanded. Manickchand’s visit and stern warning to the contractors that they either complete the project or get off it was not only necessary, but long overdue.
The people of Bamia and indeed the nation should take note. This was never just a school project gone wrong-it is an example of how governance fails when contracts are handed out on the basis of political loyalty rather than competence. It is a cautionary tale of what happens when public resources are treated as spoils to be distributed among friends of the government. We have seen too many examples of this in President Irfaan Ali’s first term and we await the promised reforms and war against corruption.
We welcome Minister Manickchand’s intervention. Her presence has brought some measure of confidence to a community that has been long neglected and frustrated. But words and warnings, though powerful, must now be matched with results. The new October deadline she has set the contractor must be adhered to and the children of Bamia must not endure yet another school year without the facilities they deserve.
Kaieteur News has long warned that nepotism and corruption breed inefficiency and squander the hopes of ordinary Guyanese. The Bamia Primary fiasco is evidence enough. If the government is serious about good governance, let this Bamia fiasco be the catalyst to signal a break from the culture of mismanagement and corruption. The children of Bamia deserve better. The nation deserves better.
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