Towards the end of March in its usual excitable style the Government Information Agency reported that President Bharrat Jagdeo had committed $50M for road improvement between Matthews Ridge and Port Kaituma in the northwest.
GINA related that during a visit to the area on March 22 the President had announced that the money set aside is readily available.
That wasn’t the entire story. In the same release, it was disclosed that the $50M had been part of a $2B package allocated since 2006 – the year of the last general elections – for hinterland roads. The President himself pointed out to GINA that this was one of the roads that should have been done via the 2006 allocation and he voiced disappointment that the relevant parties had not executed the project.
He assigned blame to the Ministry of Public Works. It was also disclosed by GINA that the money for the Matthews Ridge work has since been handed over to the Prime Minister and that the tendering process will follow.
If GINA’s narration of the events is accurate it means that this government failed to live up to a five-year-old pledge to the citizens of Matthews Ridge and Port Kaituma to have this road built. This is all the more reason for considered skepticism of the flurry of pledges and promises that have been emanating and will continue to flow from a galaxy of state agencies and officials in this election year.
How did a pledge from the President himself and the actual allocation of the money slip through the cracks for five years? It is either the government is in the business of breaking its promises without any qualms or its affairs in the region are being handled in the most incompetent matter.
Even though it controls the Region One RDC and a former Chairman of the region, Mr Norman Whittaker has been working with the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs and has now succeeded Mr Kellawan Lall at the Ministry of Local Government, the government failed to follow through with this programme. Didn’t the project go to tender, were the bids rejected and the project not re-advertised, was the money diverted to some other initiative? There are many reasonable questions and possibilities but the only sure conclusion that can be drawn is that the government’s initiation of projects is haphazard and oftentimes just underpinned by whims. There evidently was no follow-up and a variety of officials should be held accountable for depriving the people of the region of a road that has now been promised again five years later.
And what of the President himself? After promising this road in 2006 did it never enter his mind that it had not been done. During his many visits to the region post-2006 did he not once traverse this area and recall that his promise had not been fulfilled and set about dressing down his subordinates on their failure? If not, the President himself is culpable in this matter. The people of the region should also be blamed for not pursuing this promise and ensuring that the President was held to his word. What of the Regional Democratic Council and community leaders?
Worse, perhaps the project is being resurrected to cater solely for renewed business interests in the area. In the very GINA press release, it was disclosed that the government will work along with Reunion Manganese Company which is conducting exploration in the community.
The likely cinch is the declaration in the GINA press release by Reunion Chief Executive, James Crombie that during an earlier meeting with President Jagdeo he had emphasized that the “road between Matthews Ridge and Port Kaituma has to be upgraded to facilitate the transportation of the company’s materials and equipment”.
In other words this particular road was one of convenience not necessarily for the residents but for the business interests that now inhabit the region. There is nothing wrong with the government constructing roads that would inevitably assist investors but it must not be camouflaged as relief to residents when it is for something quite different. Did President Jagdeo or any of his regional officials spare a thought for how the residents of this area were doing without the road over the last five years?
It wasn’t the only road project that disappointed the President. The GINA release also reported that the President was unhappy that an even larger project – a $1.5B road to connect Regions Eight and Nine had not been constructed although the money was available. Can this really be the way that the government operates?
It betrays deception, haphazardness and irregularity in the way that the government executes its public spending programmes. This is apparent in an array of programmes from the one laptop per family to the Amaila access roads to the Hope canal project and a variety of other initiatives. Having gone now for more than a decade without the constitutionally mandated Public Procurement Commission, the PPP/C government has avoided its obligation of being accountable for irregularities in the way it conducts its business. At the same time it has seriously eroded the credibility of the government and spawned questions about corruption. Its candidate for the 2011 elections, Mr Donald Ramotar, will have much explaining and promising to do.
