THE pragmatic objective of our agricultural, industrial and technological development at the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) must continue to feed and house them. Low production, corruption, accountability, super salaries and inefficiency for retired pensioners at this institution is the direct cause of a total breakdown. Many productive assets are either not being used at all or are producing below capacity. NOC still has far too many acres of good rice lands which are idle or inefficiently utilised. An institution like this which depends for food supply on state sources is in a vulnerable position.
The development of this institution is not a task merely for the ‘government’ but for the professional planners and administrators. The administrators can achieve success only if all of them seek to understand the nature of national development and accept individual and collective responsibility for the work to be done. Apart from self-sufficiency objective, there are no auditing and record keeping of government funds and stocks, etc. The minister must act urgently to remove the many problems which are hampering this institution. He must ensure that the administrative, managerial, financial and other arrangements are in place. It is reported that these officers live outside of Region 2 and work three days a week, while there are many unemployed Essequibians who can fill the retired officer’s post here at NOC.