$160M in contracts signed to develop streets in Region 6

A total of $160 million in contracts were signed on Thursday for six contractors to execute works in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
Five of the contracts are for road upgrades and the sixth is for the refurbishing of the oxygen system at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
Of the $160 million in contracts signed for works in Region Six, $38.7 million will be spent to refurbish the oxygen system at the New Amsterdam Hospital while $35.5 million will be spent to rehabilitate a street at Budhan Scheme in West Canje and a further $25.9 million to rehabilitate another street at Albion/Chesney.
Contracts were also signed for a street at Ballfield Street at Chesney to the tune of $17.1 million while $24.5 million will be spent to upgrade a street at Number 36 Village, Corentyne, and $18.3 million on the main access street at grant 1806 Crabwood Creek.

According to the Local Government and Regional Development Minister Nigel Dharamlall, everyone must have an opportunity to bid for Government contracts.
“I want to inform the contractors that we are not going to be just left with a few people doing contracts in Region Six or any other region.”
Making mention of Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) Dharamlall said when the current Administration took office less than two years ago there were 51 contractors registered in that region. Now there are 141.
Region Six moved from 126 to 173 over the same period. More are needed, Dharamlall said, while saying that contracts to clean school compounds and health facilities will be reserved for persons from the community.
Those contractors who are engaged in executing large projects, he said, should not be bidding for small contracts.
The Minister also expressed concerns with regard to corruption in the awarding of contracts.
“I have seen from the last Government that school compounds were being cleaned at between $200,000 to $400,000 per month and I hope that this region is going to find many of these culpable people who squandered our resources.”
The Minister added that he is of the opinion that enough is not being done in the region to go after those who were squandering resources.
“We have had a lot of corruption in Region Six and I expect that the administration in Region Six is going to find the culpable people ad let’s take action against them. It is something that we owe the people of Region Six. Billions of dollars spent and can’t be accounted for.”
At the ceremony, $42.5 million was given to 17 of the 18 Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in the region. That was fifty percent of their annual subvention.
In addition, $54 million will be given to the three municipalities in the region as their subvention.
Hundreds of millions will also be spent in the region through the Community Enhancement Programme which is being rolled out by the Local Government Ministry.
“Management of solid waste is becoming one of the challenges of many of the NDCs and all of the municipalities, so we intend to pursue physical development towards enhanced management of solid waste in Region Six. There is a substantial investment. The President recently announced that Region Six will benefit from one of the six new hospitals. That will complement the services at the New Amsterdam Hospital and the district hospitals which are being upgraded.
Last year $100 million was spent on upgrading all of the health centres in the region.
“We are also spending an additional $4 billion on community roads in Region Six. This is in addition to what we will be spending directly from the RDC. Region Six has many roads and they have been left unattended for a very long time and residents have been clamouring for more help. Every day I get inundated and if I am getting inundated my boss is getting updated with fixing people’s roads and addressing other issues,” Dharamlall told the NDC Overseers, regional officials and contractors who attended the signing ceremony which was held in the N DC Boardroom.
It was noted that while many of the NDCs are being affected by resource constraints, they still have to manage those resources in the most efficient way.
He urged the NDCs not to make commitments that they cannot fulfil.
“That is why Central Government is doing the heavy lifting because we know that NDCs and municipalities do not have the resources to do a lot of the work that people require them to do. The Ministry of Agriculture is also doing a lot of work in the agriculture sector so too is the Ministry of Natural Resources; they are doing one of the roads linking Region Six and 10 via Orealla to Kwakwani.”
He said all of the Ministries are investing in the region and it is hoped that people’s lives will be enhanced.
Additionally, in excess of $10 billion is to be spent by the RDC in the regional economy, Dharamlall noted. This is in addition to the $100 million that will be given to 400 small businesses as a grant to start up or expand their business. (G4)