Latest update April 25th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 22, 2012 News
…as APNU joins protestors
Residents and hire car operators along the East Bank of Berbice yesterday
continued their protest actions over the deplorable East Bank Public Road with the new Regional Chairman, David Armogan announcing that works could start as soon as the budget is passed.
As a much smaller group of protestors gathered in front of contracting firm, H. Nauth and Sons, at Heathburn to air their concerns, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, James Bond arrived shortly after midday to hear their concerns.
Bond told Kaieteur News said that he visited the area “to see the conditions in which they (residents and drivers) have to ply their daily lives and I must say that this is disgraceful, especially when the Regional Officers, especially the Regional Chairman would make very idiotic and silly statements.”
“This administration had 19 years in which to give these people of East Bank Berbice a proper road and residents are saying that about $260M were allocated just two years ago and nothing is done! The roads are in a very terrible condition and some of the potholes are good foot- deep and this is not how Guyanese should be living in 2012.”
The Attorney-at-Law advised the residents not to burn bridges and burn roads but said that “they need to hold the government and regional officers accountable for the state of life they are having on East Bank Berbice and the PPP/C needs to start delivering to the people of Guyana and we in the opposition will ensure that we deliver because we will ensure that they present plans…when works are said to be done, that they are done properly.”
APNU, AFC in Parliament
According to Bond, APNU will table Bills and Motions and ensure what needs to be done as an opposition party is done, “and we would not be sitting on our hands…we would be doing our work and ensuring that those culprits, those contractors—those crooked contractors who rob this country of billions of dollars every year– we will ensure that they are held accountable and are locked up for what they’re doing; it is a total disservice to the people of Guyana.”
He was speaking in context of the recent collapse of the Londsdale revetment at Sisters Village, not too far from where the protest was
going on. The revetment and a heavy-duty bridge, which cost taxpayers millions of dollars, were shoddily done by a named contractor. Both collapsed a few weeks after they were “completed”.
The MP is recommending that Guyana consider the introduction
of“a Contractor General, similar to what Jamaica has, and “who has sole authority in terms of how contracts are awarded and allocated and the quality of jobs being done, and I think it is time for us to explore that model because when we leave it to the government and their Tender Board and their tender process which intends to go behind the backdoor a lot of times, I think we’re not getting value for money.”
Bond commended the APNU and Alliance for Change (AFC) “for being vigilant in these communities and it just shows the opposition parties are working to help the people get the quality of lives they deserve”.
He noted that APNU will assist the residents by taking the issue to Parliament “and first thing, if this (a new road) is not included in the budget, we will ensure it is included in the Regional budget, and if Mr. (David) Armogan and the others do not have plans for this, we will ensure that we write and submit plans for the design and construction of the road, so they can’t have the excuse that they did not even know this road did not exist or how to go about it,” he stated.
He noted that the party will not accept a refurbished road, but only a brand- new one. “There has to be a new road, we can’t accept patch work anymore; we cannot accept substandard…we have to have a new road for the residents”.
When contacted yesterday, former Regional Chairman, Zulfikar Mustapha, denied ever telling residents of the East Bank that $260M was made available to do the road. “It’s not so. I always said it was a contentious road and it needs major rehabilitation and we (were) making representation to Central Government, never, never in the history (were they told about ($260M),” he noted.
“No more patch work”
Yesterday, Armogan announced that government will be giving residents what they wanted- a brand-new East Bank Berbice road as soon after the budget is passed.
“We will do the road in a major way after the budget because we earmarked a major rehabilitation for the road in the new budget,” he said. He noted that until the budget is passed, “emergency work” will be done by H. Nauth “for people to get easier access and as soon as the budget is passed, we will do an asphalt road like those in Canje and elsewhere– this is good news for them.”
Armogan noted that the road was earmarked to have been done this year and “not because they were protesting”. He noted that the government knew it was “wasting time with all the patchwork”, hence the plan was in this year’s work programme to build a new road along the corridor.
“We will have to do it in phases,” he cautioned, adding that the first phase will be along the more-used stretch from Glasgow to the Bermine turn. “Whatever portion we would be doing, we would be doing it in a good way– no more patchwork,” he added. The estimated cost for the entire road, he predicted, could be between $80- 100M.
On Monday, residents and drivers blocked roads in the area over its deplorable state.
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