Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Aug 08, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The issue of the school at Kato is not going to be settled by exchanges in the media or between the government and the contractor. There are means by which these controversies can be resolved and the Granger administration had demonstrated that it is willing to employ such measures.
The government has appointed numerous commissions of inquiry. It should do the same with the school at Kato since there are disputes to be resolved, liabilities to be ascribed and lessons to be learnt.
Unfortunately, at the moment, what is taking center stage are two dimensions: the political dimension and the blame game. Political currency is being obtained by the government in making the PPP look bad. There is a sustained campaign by the government to, week after week, show that there were irregularities committed by the PPP during its time in office. That is politics and it is for the PPP to respond to those charges.
But in the process, the reputations of individuals and firms are being muddied. This approach brings no closure or resolution. It merely extends the controversies.
The second dimension is the issue of liability and responsibility. In the case of the school at Kato, the government is blaming the contractor and saying that it will not pay sums owed under the contract. The government is also making claims about the quality of the construction. The company in turn is saying that it is owed money and that it is willing, under certain conditions, to fix defects identified. It is saying, also, that it built the school according to specifications under its contract.
The political and the legal dimensions are crisscrossing. This is going to cloud judgments. There is need for a different approach, one which can be viewed as being objective and fair.
The government obviously has to milk as much political capital it can over this issue. It is all part of the plan to make the PPP look bad. But that strategy only has a limited shelf life. In the end the government will have to address the legal issues in the case.
There are also lessons to be learnt from this case which are important for development planning. The government needs to therefore bring a closure to this issue.
The government should establish a commission of inquiry into the construction of the school at Kato. It should appoint a one-man commission of inquiry. It should recruit a qualified person from overseas – not Guyana- who should undertake this review.
The government has entered into a multi-billion dollar settlement with a private contractor over the decision of the government to terminate that contract. It has done this without a commission of inquiry to determine whether the contractor was liable for any breach of that contract or inability to meet targets within that contract.
The government settled with the contractor. It did not take the approach it is taking in relation to the contractor at Kato. It did not claim that it was not paying.
No one has questioned why it was necessary to terminate that contract. No one has asked the government to explain how it arrived at a billion dollar settlement.
Obviously, Cabinet had to have been involved in this settlement and arguments would have to have been made as to why the contract was ended and how was the settlement figure arrived at. It is not too late for the government to explain the basis of its settlement with that contractor.
The government will obviously not explain why it did not seek to milk political capital out of this issue.
The government need not prolong the debates over the school at Kato. There are number of questions to be answered, including the roles of the contractors, the consultants and the oversight bodies within the government. There is the issue as to the structural integrity of the school – whether it is safe for children to be housed in such a facility. What were the factors involved in the design of the school – for example, why was the school built out of concrete and not wood. Why was there a need for such a large school?
These questions should be answered by an independent – with a stress of the word independent – commission of inquiry (COI). If the government can establish such a commission to probe allegations against the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit; if it can appoint a COI into the fire that destroyed a safe house for juveniles, there is no reason why the same cannot be done to examine the design and construction of the school at Kato.
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I am with you. The government likes COI. This is ripe fruit for the picking. The thing Guyanese need to have clear in their head is that government is always continuous. A change in government does not mean that the country will remain at a stand still. This is my problem with our current government. It becomes so rooted in the past and so much bent in maligning the previous government that it is not acting in a timely manner to create effective governance. The golden bird is flying away.