– REO asks Finance Ministry for help

KATO Secondary School in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) is saddled with more problems close to two months after it was declared fit for learning by the engineer at the Ministry of Education.

Constructed under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic(PPP/C) administration to facilitate students in the region, the Kato Secondary School has been a sore issue for the Ministry of Education. After much delay, the school, construction of which started in 2013, was opened this September, but now that it has the full complement of students, more problems are surfacing.

In an interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Regional Executive Officer (REO) Carl Parker said that from all indications, the A Partnership For National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) administration will be saddled with the responsibility of constantly maintaining the school building as there are a number of things wrong with it.
“The engineers went and give the school a pass mark in terms of structural integrity, but they did that when the school wasn’t loaded,” Parker said.

“And now that the school is loaded with 350 children — and you know children; they gallivant whole day — a lot of faults are showing up with that school,” he added, noting that for starters, the walkway around the building is unstable.
Parker said:“Apparently it wasn’t done properly, and so when you are walking on the concrete, you feel the concrete moving.

“So apparently it wasn’t compacted properly, or if they compact it properly, they compacted it with the wrong material.”
Then there’s the roof of the school, which, according to the REO,was poorly done. He said that in the event of any heavy shower with strong winds, “the zinc sheets will be flying left, right, and centre.”

Parker said,too, that the water trestles cannot withstand the weight of the tanks, added to which is the problem with the septic tanks.
“The septic tanks are those you build for your homes,” the REO said. “We have 350 children there, and all the septic tanks are overflowing. So I asked a contractor to go across to extend the septic tanks to commercial size septic tanks.”

LITANY OF WOES
And if that’s not enough, the water supply system, which is powered by solar energy, conked out several days ago due to the inability to charge the batteries. As such, no water could have been pumped to the school.

“There is no system in place for the waste water from the kitchen,” he further pointed out, while explaining that the waste water currently drains into a ravine, which in turn drains into the creek from which water is pumped to supply the school.
Said the REO: “So we are pumping water; nasty water into the tanks. Last week we had to deal with a situation where the doctors had to respond to a bout of vomiting and diarrhoea.”

To remedy the situation, he said the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) has identified another ravine from which to access water, and that the pump will be relocated to facilitate the process. But to do it, the RDC will need additional funds, which it has already requested, from the Ministry of Finance.

The RDC has also requested $50M from the Finance Ministry to rehabilitate a number of buildings at Kato to accommodate teachers.

“The building right now could only accommodate 10 teachers,” Parker said, adding:
“We have 17 teachers, and so we have to find accommodation for seven. We have the buildings.”

Those buildings to which he referred were built in the 1980s, when Kato was the seat of administration for Region Eight. “We are awaiting permission from the Ministry of Finance, along with the funds, to have those buildings rehabilitated,” he said. “ So we have teachers right now doubling up in their apartments.”
For 2019, the RDC has requested funding for the construction of another dormitory, the REO said. “That school only has Forms One, Two and Three, and it is filled; both dormitories are filled.
“Next year we will be having a Form Four, and the following year we will be having a Form Five. And it has implications for accommodation, so we have budgeted to extend the dormitories.”

He said that based on the current situation, it is likely that the school will have to be maintained more than is the norm.
The contract for the construction of the school received Cabinet’s approval on December 27, 2012, and was awarded by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to the lowest of four bidders.

At the time, a $728.165M contract was signed on December 31, 2012, with a commencement date of January 21, 2013. The contract provided for a two-year period for defects liability, one year after completion.

However, it was saddled with defects, and the current administration was left with no other choice than to facilitate remedial works.