Dear Editor,
Recent submissions in the media have dictated that the Regional Democratic Council of Region 10 be more forceful in exposing the ineptitudes of this Regional Administration, since it would appear that these officers are adamant in managing the affairs of the people of this Region by excuse and deceit.
The Councillors of the R.D.C. of Region 10 took a majority resolution on December 14th, 2007 to have the head of this Regional Administration removed from this post as a result of a litany of issues pointing towards malaise in addressing developmental concerns of the people of Region 10, including, but not limited to his, the regional executive officer’s refusal to allow the Council access to its own records, which to date have not been made available to this R.D.C.
As highlighted by numerous writers in your letter columns, including Councillors from this R.D.C. and other residents, there are serious problems in the education sector of Region 10, which this Regional Administration seems to ignore. There are concerns over violence in our schools, inappropriate behaviour by school children on and outside of the premises of the school, a total lack of accountability and responsibility at our students hostel where children are entrusted to the care of the R.D.C., through its Administration and situations where schools have been closed and students are forced to remain home and lose out on their education by the inefficiencies of this Regional Administration. It may be important to note here that our children’s right to attend school is enshrined in numerous conventions and the Laws of Guyana, but these facts seem unimportant to the officers in Region 10 tasked with the delivery of this service.
I have brought to the attention of the Regional Administration on numerous occasions, formally, several issues for urgent redress especially in the education sector in this Region, as well as other sectors, and to date I have not received a response on any of the following:
1. The closure of the St. Lust Primary School in the Berbice River for the entirety of this current school term. The Regional Democratic Council is deeply disturbed at the fact that the children of this community are being denied hundreds of teaching/learning periods.
2. The Mackenzie High School’s 1st to 3rd forms are out of school for weeks now, due to the disrepair of the stairs at that institution. It is untenable to even consider the Regional Executive Officer’s submission that this situation could be extended because of the Mashramani celebrations, since any contractor who is properly apprised and motivated to empathise with the urgency of this situation would have commenced this work a long time ago. Indeed, if the Regional Administration had acted on the submissions of the School’s Board and Administration in a timely fashion, our students would not have lost out on tutoring periods.
3. The Christianburg Wismar Secondary School is reportedly on the verge of closure because of the condition of the sanitary block there.
4. The West Watooka Nursery School was closed for several weeks this term, after it was discovered that the electricity there was being supplied by a temporary connection which was causing heating of the outlets, walls and wiring of the building. The absence of an electrical certificate for this building, completed almost two years ago and fully paid for even without this document and apparently, any proper inspection, led to the Utility Company refusing to connect a permanent supply of power, and the parents refusing to send their children to an unsafe facility, an understandable position.
5. The closure of the Mt. Caramel Primary School at Ituni, Berbice River, due to the only teacher there being on maternity leave, even though her pregnancy and the fact that there was only one teacher there was known to our education officials.
6. The Christianburg Nursery School, constructed as a capital project in 2005, which at the time of writing this letter remains, unoccupied. Why? Despite my personal advice/instruction to the head of the Regional Administration, based on my local knowledge of the swampy nature of that location which was selected for the construction of this school, not to have the school built there, the Administration nevertheless went ahead with construction at the same location.
It is now apparent that this entire building has sunk at a rapid pace, and so cracks in the walls of this building are visible. This project has occasioned many questions from Councillors in statutory meetings of council and our information is that although there were several apparent defects on this building, the entire sum, including that usually withheld for the defects and liability period was paid to the contractor, and so there was a wait to access funds from another year’s budget to correct faults which should have been addressed with the retention funds. These are the type of inefficiencies that this Council has been talking about with little or no redress, and which resulted in mismanagement of funds allocated to this Region on both Capital and Recurrent projects, resulting in our people receiving little value for their tax dollars. Additionally, after receiving reports of the situation with violent acts at the Wisburg Secondary School, not from our Regional Administration, but rather from other reports, the Regional Education Committee called an emergency meeting chaired by yours truly, with the input of the Probation and Welfare Officer here at Linden and other sector officials. After realizing the magnitude of the problem, we mandated the establishment of a broad-based committee to address this problem, comprised of Education Department officials, the Probation & Welfare Officer, civil society representatives such as Pastors and Councillors and other Councillors engaged in welfare issues.
It is therefore very disheartening to note that, even though this committee was established over three weeks ago, no meeting has been convened by the Administration officials tasked with this responsibility from our Education Department. This speaks volumes of the lack of concern these persons have for the welfare of our children, and their non-appreciation for the voluntary offerings of their social sector partners who have agreed to assist with this growing problem.
However, this is not the only sector plagued with problems under this Regional Administration. Reports in the Guyana Chronicle recently had the Regional Executive Officer stating that the Katabuli Creek Bridge was built over 60 years ago and had to be reconstructed at a different location, but both of these submissions are totally untrue. The Katabuli Creek Bridge was re-constructed through a community self help effort in the mid-1990’s by residents of Christianburg. This bridge had deteriorated, and a decision was made to rehabilitate this bridge at a cost of $14 million, which was provided by Government in our Capital estimates for 2006. The Regional Administration proceeded, in their own wisdom, or lack thereof, to not only re-construct this bridge, but to relocate it far from the protective revetments existent at the original location, changing the course of the Katabuli Creek significantly in the process. This has had the effect of encouraging widespread erosion of the base of the new ‘bridge’, as well as to pose significant problems to the flow and outfall of the creek into the Demerara River, since it was diverted.
Several Councillors are also on record speaking to the sub-standard work being accepted in the construction of roads in Region 10, with potholes appearing in these roads mere months after construction.
Of note is the fact that the R.D.C had written to the Auditor General requesting an audit of the work done on the Linden to Kwakwani road and the payments made for this ‘work’ but to date have received no response, nor noted any investigation being done.
Finally, allow me to point out that there are several, irrefutable instances o
f work being paid for in its entirety before being completed, such as the construction of teachers quarters at Gaetroy in the Berbice River and the construction and furnishing of teachers quarters, where these quarters remain unoccupied for over a year, while in other areas teachers are left to live in quarters with no furnishings whatsoever. These are just some of the Administrational malaises that this Council has been grappling with, and which we strongly feel do not contribute to the development and welfare of our people in Region 10.
We have therefore decided to take to the streets to bring about an awareness of these issues among our constituents who have elected us to represent them, and to seek to have these concerns addressed in an efficient and timely manner. However, despite our best efforts of talking to and discussions to encourage our Administration to deal with these issues, we have had little or no success.
It is hoped that some reason would prevail and that this situation would be addressed in a comprehensive way by the authorities, and in my humble view, this could only be effectively addressed by taking a serious stance with the people who have been imposed on the R.D.C. to execute its work programme, since it is more and more apparent that the concerns of the people of Region 10 and their elected R.D.C. are alien to the current Regional Administration.
Yours faithfully,
Mortimer Mingo
Regional Chairman
Region 10
