Region 6 machine operators refusing to work without AC

…Chairman slams action as “ridiculous”

Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) Chairman David Armogan has said he is to be blamed for some of the mismanagement in that region as it relates to residents getting value for money.

Armogan, who was at the time addressing the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) on the poor performance of machines that are assigned to the Drainage and Irrigation (D&I) system in Region Six, disclosed that several of the equipment are down only because the air conditioning system is not working.
“I don’t know since when an air condition is a big problem for a machine to work. Since when operators have to get the air conditioner to work a machine? Every private machine that is working in this county doesn’t have air condition. I think we are a tolerating a lot of nonsense in the public system. Some machines are sitting down because the air conditioning is not working. It is as bad as that. Our operators are not working because they have to be in an air-conditioner system,” the Chairman said.
While referring to what the administration has been accepting as “ridiculous”, Armogan added that many of the operators do not give a day’s work for a day’s pay. This is so because the administration has not put systems in place to ensure it gets value for money.
“Nobody is checking to see what is the production coming from these machines. So we are losing production hours from the machines. You check and see if we are paying $5000 per hour for a machine and that is putting it at a ridiculously low level; at the end of the day we are losing $40,000 on each one of these machines. That is how economics work; every time you lose time, you are losing money. That is how business operates and the Government has to go that way,” Armogan pointed out.
He also noted that the administration has been spending money on fuel for work that has not been done. The Chairman added that it is time to go back to the drawing board so that taxpayers get worth for their tax dollars.
“The time has come for the REO [Regional Executive Officer] and myself to sit down and look at this whole thing. We cannot blame anybody else; we have to blame ourselves for some of the bad things that are happening within the region. We must be responsible enough to go back to the drawing board and look at this thing.”
Armogan noted that Neighbourhood Democratic Councils (NDCs) in which D&I machines are scheduled to work, should give the administration a weekly update as to the amount of work completed.
Armogan is suggesting the operators be paid for measured work and sighted instances where operators would have only worked for a mal portion of the day but would have been paid for the entire day. (Andrew Carmichael)