By Vanessa Braithwaite

COUNCILLORS of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region 10 continue to voice their concerns over the haphazard way in which construction of Government buildings is being carried out by contractors, in addition to acts of skulduggery on the part of these contractors. These concerns were voiced at the statutory meeting held last Thursday and councillors bemoaned the situation of contractors purchasing far more materials for a job that is stated on the bill of quantities.
Councillor Charles Sampson, who is also a member of the Works Committee, alluded to several inspections where a large quantity of materials was purchased for the job that are not even needed.
In some cases, the bill of quantities, stating far more that is needed. This, he said, “I don’t understand how this is happening.”
“You can’t look at a building and say it needs 248 yem of wood and when you check the quantity, you don’t even need 1/5th of that…. Mr Chairman, we have to tighten up,” posited Sampson.
He recommended that drawings be completed, so that the contractors and clerk of works can accurately calculate quantities so as to avoid over-purchasing.
Regional Chairman Renis Morian posited that a solution to the problem is to hire clerks of work and to secure his/her payment through budgetary funding. He revealed that the previous clerk of works that was sent on administrative leave pending an investigation was paid through savings which should not have been.
“We want it in the budget and it wasn’t happening for the past 15 years, we’ve been trying to get budgetary money set aside for this and it never happened and we will have to up our game to make sure it happened,” Morian said.
Councillor Douglas Gittens stressed that the clerk of works should be paid well so that they would not be tempted to be involved in skulduggery.
LOW AND UNDERBIDDING
Low and under-bidding for contracts were deemed another issue of concern for the councillors, who stressed that this results in substandard work being carried out.
Councillor Gittens explained that when a contractor underbids for a contract and wins it, the quality is often very poor and has to be redone shortly after. This was echoed by the regional chairman, who revealed this being the case, especially in the outlined areas where there is little or no supervision while the work is being carried out.
Currently, several washrooms of schools on the Demerara and Berbice Rivers are out of service, even though they were constructed in less than two years.
Students and teachers of Muritaro Primary School were forced to build a pit latrine toilet, since the newly constructed lavatory facility constructed by a contractor in Linden was no good for use.
Morian stressed that more supervision is needed on the ground to alleviate the problems the region is facing as it relates to construction of Government buildings. Currently, the region’s Works Department is understaffed as three employees there have been sent on administrative leave pending an investigation.