The parliamentary Opposition has claimed that the Public Infrastructure Ministry is faced with grave incompetence, underperformance and mismanagement, pointing to several issues that have been ongoing at that particular ministry for the past year as highlighted in Budget 2018.
Shadow Public Infrastructure Minister and Opposition parliamentarian Juan Edghill has accused the Government of excessive use of the force account, particularly at the Public Infrastructure Ministry. The force account is the payment method used for extra work if a contractor and the engineer are unable to negotiate prices for revised work. This, he said, has not gone unnoticed.
Edghill told the media at a People’s Progressive Party (PPP) press conference that while there was grave mismanagement, one of the most burning issues was the alleged political interference in the tendering process. “While they are putting nice big figures in the 2018 Budget, I’ll point out to you that on several fronts, the expenditure is zero. They haven’t spent a dime on some of the major projects they spoke about in 2017,” he stated.
Edghill argued that the slow implementation of several capital projects highlighted that there was either no procurement plan or they were unable to execute their procurement plan.
“It’s either jobs are being held back for specific contractors and it means at the end of the year, cheques are going to be cut for contractors and suppliers even though goods and services have not been delivered,” he further claimed.
The Opposition MP said while Government has touted the Linden to Lethem Road as one of the major projects to be undertaken, $50 million was put in Budget 2017, but not a dime was spent. “So, it’s a pipe dream and an ice-cream promise that existed last year and is coming back again this year, and we are going to have more money being put into the budget for this.”
Edghill also cited some other major infrastructural projects that monies were requested for in the previous budget, but nothing was done. These include the East Bank-East Coast Demerara road linkage, waterfront development, and the ferry vessels from India.
The Opposition MP claims that the Ministry was not following the rules and as such, foreign-funded projects were lagging behind.
