CHAIRMAN of Region 6(East Berbice/Corentyne), Mr. David Armogan has said that the ongoing issue in relation to the East Bank Berbice Road is a contentious one which the Administration has been trying to resolve.

He told the Guyana Chronicle: “We have warranted to the Ministry of Public Works $20M out of our own Regional Budget which would have been used for the maintenance of roads in Region Six this year.
“We had taken that money because we have a limit on what we can spend and the Ministry of Public Works has added $19M and the contractor, Nauth, has been given a contract to do a maintenance programme on that road for the rest of this year.
“The maintenance work has been started but when we inspected the road, recently, we found that what Nauth is doing is not going to hold. It will be a waste of taxpayers’ money.
“As far as I am concerned, it will be a waste of taxpayers’ money and I have asked the Ministry of Public Works to relook at that exercise and to look at what the contractor has been doing and change his scope of work, as it will be meaningless to sacrifice. Throw some loam, throw some crusher run as soon as the rain falls a couple of days it will be displaced. So, they have to look at another scope of works and that is what the Ministry is, currently, looking at, and hopefully we will get some action within a couple of days.
“Thirty-nine million is a lot of money to go down the drain like that. That which is done presently cannot hold, so we need to see what else can be done,” Armogan added.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the East Bank Hire Car Association, Mr. Maxwell Semple concurred that the ongoing works are of a substandard level and the contractor is not maintaining the thoroughfare as specified on the bill of quantity document.
As a result, he informed that works along the East Bank roadway have been stopped as the contractor was expected to fill the holes with reef sand, then crusher run and asphalt.

WASHES OUT
“But what he is doing is that the potholes are being filled with reef stand and crusher run and no asphalt. As the rains come, everything washes out in a matter of three or four days. I told the Regional Chairman that the work must stop as it is a waste of tax payers money,” Semple said.
This newspaper was advised that, during last week, officials from the Public Works Ministry, along with those from the Region and concerned residents inspected between the villages of Islington and Lighttown but were dissatisfied and deemed the exercise unacceptable.
“At the rate the contractor is going, within a month or two, $38M to $39M will finish and the residents will not benefit from the temporary relief,” Semple declared.
Last April, despite an assurance by President Donald Ramotar, that remedial works will continue on the East Bank Berbice roadway until the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) approves a $20B loan to reconstruct the 25 miles thoroughfare, residents and hire car operators protested against its condition, by parking their vehicles and blocking the route with derelicts.
The protest started after residents viewed a local telecast in which President Ramotar said funding from the IDB to rebuild a section of the East Bank Berbice main access road will not be available before next year.

WERE SHOCKED
The residents said they were shocked at the statement and referred to a commitment made by the Head of State, at the 2012 Arrival Day function at Highbury, to have the issue of the road resolved in a timely manner.
However, President Ramotar, speaking at the Berbice Chamber of Commerce and Development Association award ceremony at Albion Senior Staff Club, subsequently, acknowledged the inconveniences experienced by the commuters and its effect on them economically.
But he pointed out that the Government has approached the IDB and the lending agency has requested a feasibility study before the required sum can be made available.
“We have approached the IDB for money to do the East Bank Road. We don’t have the kind of money to do the entire road now. We are looking at $20B. Hopefully we should get that money at the beginning of 2014. In the meantime, we will be doing some remedial work on the East Bank of Berbice Road this year,” President Ramotar had said.