Villagers of the Amerindian settlement at St Cuthbert’s Mission in Region 4, have complained that they have been shorted in the procurement process for troolie palm leaves to be used in the rebuilding of the Umana Yana in Kingston.
“The contract says that some of the leaves are to be sourced from our village but there seems to be a deliberate attempt to not have this,” one resident told Stabroek News yesterday.
It was explained that in the contract for the rebuilding of the Umana Yana, which was destroyed by fire in September 2014, the palm leaves for the roof would come from Masakenari, Moraikobai and St Cuthbert’s Mission. The building of the actual structure would be executed by the Wai Wai peoples of South Rupununi.
However, the resident lamented that while the building and thatching have commenced, the St Cuthbert’s Mission has been shortchanged and this is in turn depriving the community of needed revenue.
Minister in the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs, Valerie Garrido-Lowe, told this newspaper yesterday when contacted that she was aware of the issue but that “there is more to it”.
Although she posited that the matter was “an internal” one that she did not want reported in the media, she did explain that she will be meeting the persons involved in the disagreement today, as a way of having the matter resolved.
“Who tell you about it, the Toshao? This is something internal and I don’t want it reported in the media. I really can’t say much until these things are sorted out,” Garrido-Lowe stated.
Questioned on what today’s meeting would entail and the claims made by the residents as it pertains to the purchasing of the material for the roof, Garrido-Lowe maintained that she could not divulge any information until the matter was resolved, stressing again that there “is more to it than that”.
“They can come to a proper agreement, I believe they can and I tell you I don’t want to say too much…the Benab is a place of peace and all of them must remember that,” she asserted.
This newspaper also reached out to the building contractor, former Moraikobai, Toshao Colin Andrews, for comment and he explained that he was not comfortable speaking on the phone with the reporter but would make the contract documents available today to Stabroek News.
While he said that he will be visiting the Minister in the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs today, he pointed out that he had no knowledge that there was a meeting between Minister Lowe and anyone from her ministry, as it relates to the leaves procurement issue.
The work to rebuild the Umana Yana, which was razed by a fire more than a year ago, is being done by the younger generation of the Wai Wai people, their leader Paul Chekema had explained, earlier this month.
Construction of the $66.7 million structure commenced then, with more than 32 Wai Wai men from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) working to complete the “shell” of the benab in an eight-week timeframe. It is planned for the monument to be fully functional by Independence Day.
Chekema and his workers were contracted by the Ministry of Indigenous People’s Affairs to rebuild the monument, which was originally erected by more than 60 Wai Wais in 1972 to facilitate the first Non-Aligned Movement meeting.
“This is a Wai Wai building and we still continue… with the younger man; no older man, sheer young boys are making this building,” Chekema added.
The Wai Wai team leader was granted the contract to construct the exterior of the benab, which entails tying the rafters and leaves. “Our contract will be the rafters and leaves, another contractor will be doing the walls,” he explained.
He said that they are expected to complete the work in a month and a half, depending on the availability of the materials.
Chekema had also pointed out that it is too costly to get the materials from his Masakenari Village, thus additional resources would be supplied by St Cuthbert’s Mission and Moraikobai.
This issue the people of St Cuthbert’s wants addressing urgently. “Just as how their village (Masakenari) needs the money we do too. It is not every day that we get paid for the palm leaves and besides there is enough that all of us can benefit,” one resident said.
“If they said that we could not meet deadline in the first phase to supply leaves, we can accept that, although they have not given us notice, but we have material here ready. It’s just that no one is telling our Toshao anything and we want this problem to be addressed early before just now we hear the benab is completed and nothing for St Cuthbert’s”, the villager added.
