Bamia School agony

Sep 20, 2025 Editorial, News

Kaieteur News – In November 2021, when the contract was awarded to ST8tment Investment Inc., to build the Bamia Primary School in Region 10, many Guyanese eyebrows were raised in disbelief. It cannot be that a local group that made its name in entertainment was now entrusted with $346M in taxpayers’ dollars to construct a school. One of the defences tendered was that a start has to be made somewhere, and that branching out into new business areas was part of the vision. Two months short of four years later, both the starting and branching out have been nothing but a painful exercise in learning.

When will the PPPC Government learn and stop playing these expensive games with taxpayers’ money? When will Guyanese get a government that puts the interests of the people first, and in a situation where children are impacted, held hostage? Now the same PPPC Government, through its newly appointed Minister of Local Government is taking a stand with “it’s either they finish this, or they come off the project.” A project that was supposed to finish in 20 months is still being talked about relative to its unfinished state, two years and two months after its original deadline. How can anyone take the PPPC Government, old or new, and its ministers, settled or shuffled around, as being serious, or people to trust? It is a circumstance that has repeated itself in different shapes and forms, and under different governments decade after decade.

It wasn’t just time that was a problem with the Bamia Primary School project. There was also the issue of money, as in more millions that had to be put out. The original contract amount was for $346M, which got a boost through an additional $127M voted to keep the project going. Ten percent more may be understood, and then only barely so. But 37% is enough to add anger to disbelief, since this is how the government and its partners take advantage of a largely passive population that swallows any trash that is stuffed down its throat.

The position of the contractor, ST8tment Investment Inc., was that labour shortages, increased cost of materials, and unfavourable weather conditions all contributed to delaying the project. Though this may sound harsh, aside from unfavourable weather conditions, the other factors are the contractor’s problem, and that of the government. It shouldn’t be for the children and parents of the entire Bamia catchment area. This project should have been finished years ago, but the government put its foot in its mouth when ST8Tment Investment Inc., was awarded the contract to build the school. An imbecile could have anticipated that there would be issues with its proper completion, and even then, it was unimaginable that 26 months after the original completion date, the school would still have what’s being called ‘minor works’ and ‘finishing touches.’ For too long and too often, too many in the government and its army of cronies think that citizens are stupid.

The new minister may be impressed with her own tough talk about getting the project done by October, or get off the premises. It was the same type of comedy chatter that once was the norm for the Cheddi Jagan Airport Extension, where more money and more time were all that was heard. Who is going to make Guyanese taxpayers whole? What will be the penalty for contractors that fail to deliver on time and within budget? More fat contracts that make no sense from a competency and delivery standpoint is what should be expected. President Ali himself is among the best in the government to sell unsuspecting citizens about how much he has their interests as a priority, and how much energy he intends to expend to ensure that they get proper works and proper value for their dollars. Unfortunately, the record has not been kind to either the president or the government. The more speeches he makes about clean governance and transformational leadership, the more there’re blights like the Bamia Primary School project that makes a mockery of whatever he says.

This school should have been finished a long time ago. ST8Tment either completes it by the newest deadline, or be shown the door.

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Bamia, Bamia School, Editorial, St8tment Investment Inc, taxpayers

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