Dear Editor,
There are two fish port complexes which were built by the Hoyte government, one at Charity and the other at Lima Essequibo Coast, with an ice plant for the local fishing fleet. It was the aim to establish storage and distribution centres for fish throughout this region. In 1992, these two complexes were privatized to local businessmen.
Some in the PPP government, were aggressively promoting the divestment of our regional assets, and the new coalition government must take a dispassionate look at these deals to see if the fishing complexes were leased or sold for a pittance. If they were leased or rented the government must find out to whom the money was going.
There are two marketing centres, one at Charity and the other at Supenaam, which are being leased or rented by the NDCs or the previous government to vendors who now occupy them. These facilities were built to buy farmers’ produce from the riverine areas; the farmers are now selling their produce on the road or at home. An account must be given in relation to the marketing centres as well; the one at Supenaam has not bought farmers’ produce for decades and it is now a beer garden and shopping mall.
Several post office spaces were rented out, and these are now business ventures, selling clothing and stationery, and offering photocopying and internet services. Large containers are parked in front of the post office passageway, thus compromising the security and safety of members of the public.
The Water Users Association is also an entity which provides jobs for a number of political elements, and is placing more burden on the farmers who can barely clear their debts and go back to their land. It should be disbanded immediately, since it does not provide any real service to the rice farmers; it only collects rates and taxes and occupies a nursery school which was built for the growing population of Anna Regina and Henrietta. These children now have to walk a longer distance to attend another school. The rates and taxes used to be paid at the town council and a percentage was retained for the services and stationery. The regional administration took this service away and placed it with the Water Users Association. The monies should be paid over directly to the drainage and irrigation department which upgrades dams, cleans canals, builds kokers and maintains the main canal regulators and Dawa pumping station. There should be an audit of all government machines within this region; unserviceable machines should be sold at auction by a tendering process, and the ones which need spare parts should be fixed to help boost the pool which is already in operation.
The passport office at Anna Regina is a mere shell. It does not provide any service although it was built for Essequibians, and you cannot even get an application form to buy. People still have to travel to Georgetown to renew and apply for a passport, then have to go back there to uplift it two weeks later. This is a costly exercise for Essequibians, because it entails time, money, overnighting at hotels and standing in the line early in the morning. We need all the processing to be done here, and for this new coalition government to prove to the last inept government that what they couldn’t do in 23 years, can be done.
Anna Regina and Suddie Police Stations are in dire need of repair; they look shabby and dilapidated. The policemen need to work and live in a comfortable environment, and even their houses in the station compound are in poor state.
The small pumps which were installed by the PPP administration, need to be replaced by the bigger caterpillar pumps. A number of large pumps which had been placed at different points along the sea defences by the PNC government were carried away, thus causing floods in the rice fields and housing areas, because the small pumps cannot take off the volume of water coming from the main canal, which at times was released to avoid breakage on the embankment.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
