–substandard work no longer acceptable
By Vanessa Braithwaite
THE Region 10 Administration has vowed to take stern action against contractors who fail to complete their projects within stipulated deadlines and according to required standards.
This position was adopted at the region’s recent statutory meeting, and was fully supported by the Clerk of Council, Gavin Clarke.It was observed that contractors, on a number of occasions, finish their jobs way over stipulated deadlines, and those completed projects have all sorts of discrepancies. Being cognisant of these continuous lapses, the Regional Administration — inclusive of the Regional Executive Officer (REO), Regional Chairman Renis Morian, and the Works Committee –- will, at the earliest opportunity, be putting systems in place to have negligent contractors penalised.
In a previous statutory meeting, the Clerk of Council had noted that his job was not only to ensure that the State’s money is spent, but that value is received from its expenditure.
Councillor Charles Sampson has recommended that a way to remedy the situation is to have officers do continuous inspection on the job, rather than wait for the project to be completed and then be disappointed from what is observed during the final inspection.
It was also recommended that a checklist be kept on the contractors’ performances in previous contracts, and the ratings will determine whether those contractors would be awarded future contracts. It will no longer be about who had bid the lowest, but would be based on previous assessments.
A system would also be implemented to monitor contractors completing projects in riverine areas, as many haphazard works have been noted in those areas, including at Muritaro, Malali, Rivers View, Falmouth and Great Falls.
On a recent visit to Muritaro, the Regional Chairman discovered that a toilet facility built less than two years ago could not be used because of the decrepit state of the building in which it was housed. Thus the children are using a pit latrine. Morian deems that state of affairs unacceptable, and called on the Education Department to allocate funds to have the sanitary facility redone earliest.
“All our public works were badly done, especially those in Indigenous communities. We have one in Muritaro that was built before we took office and the children can’t use it, so residents had to build a wood latrine,” the Chairman revealed.
He added: “We’ve got a big job. In the Indigenous communities, facilities are in a sad state. So, bit by bit, we have got to correct these things, especially in communities such as Muritaro, Riverview and Falmouth. So we have a big challenge ahead of us.”
The Chairman also revealed that during his visits to several schools in Linden, he found the sanitary conditions in deplorable state, and he opined that a minimum standard needs to be established for schools.
“We have to establish a minimum standard for the education system, where everybody has to be at this standard; they mustn’t fall below it. We came into office meeting public infrastructure run down…in a terrible state. So our challenge now is to correct the situation. In some instances it would be better to break down the whole structure and rebuild.”
Morian admitted that the situation cannot be rectified immediately, but he said that efforts would be expended to better the situation and deal with the contractors.
