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Dear Editor,
This has relevance to the article on the contract to D. Sawh’s competence to build pump stations. Information coming out of the Secretariat of Ministry of Agriculture indicates that tenders for several pump stations around the country will be retendered. In other words, those which were advertised for which bids were made by private contractors have been rejected and will now be retendered. This has been an ongoing practice.
Apparently, the Ministry and the government have not learned any lesson from the May/June flooding. Projects were retendered because the contractors could not meet the contract taxes to competently perform the job. Contracts were awarded to inexperienced contractors who could not get the work done properly. This contributed to the flood problems.
Now again, contractors are being pressured to pay contract fees. Bidders are unable to meet the demands to secure awards. Is this the reason projects are retendered multiple times? Indecency is pervading the government. When will the Vice President act to stop it?
One contractor paid his approval tax and got his contract award. Others are resisting to pay the contract tax and are slighted. One official appears to be in a business joint venture with a contractor from the Corentyne. That contractor gets large amounts of awards and has priority in winning bids and he was recently granted huge flood relief in the millions.
If any tender should be nullified, it should be the contract awarded to D. Sawh, perhaps the least qualified of those who put in bids for the Corentyne pump station. It is an injustice that the bids for several experienced, prominent contractors are being terminated while those of the less experienced are going ahead. There is a general feeling that the wrong is becoming right and the right is becoming wrong. What a shame on the government!
The aggrieved are fearful of complaining and to whom. And there is not one they can complain to in confidence. If they complain to government officials about wrong doings at various Ministries, they are victimized. Worse, they are automatically considered as anti-government and barred from getting contracts. Whistleblower protection does not apply. Is it a question that to be considered good by the government, you must be an evil doer? Several engineers resigned this week from DNI because they are being forced to do wrong. They prefer to resign than condone wrong doing. Others plan to follow suit.
I learn that the cabinet has an outreach in Essequibo Coast on Friday. What is the purpose of cabinet outreaches when the individuals who expose corruption are marked for punitive measures? Individuals would not come forward to expose corruption. Is this what we voted for in March 2020? Does authorization to do wrong doing come from the top?
Yours truly,
Samuel Gittens
