Dear Editor
PLEASE permit me to respond to a claim carried in your daily newspaper, Tuesday may 9, 2017 titled ‘ALL PUMPS SLUICES WORKING, disciplinary actions for engineers’.
I must, firstly, respond by saying it is with great regret and disgust that I have to respond to such an erroneous claim, for the first time publicly in my entire professional career, on not cooperating with my place of employment.
It would be remiss of me to not cooperate with my Department given the magnitude of my role and responsibilities that have to be undertaken daily.
However, before I go in-depth to dismiss the claims made as baseless, I will explain the role of the Deputy City Engineer within the Engineer’s Department of the Mayor and City Council and its support to the engineering core.
Deputy City Engineer is responsible to ensure all activities of the Department be executed and implemented within time and budget, including the management and supervision of the publish engineers and the more than two hundred (200) staffs. The support engineering core is responsible for execution of assigned tasks.
Editor, the Department is staffed with five (5) engineers, including the City Engineer and other auxiliary staffs, who have the mandate and responsibility for several city projects implementation and execution, and other daily works that ensure the preservation of the city efficiency.
Some major projects recently undertaken include the rehabilitation of the Albouystown Clinic; Construction of the Barr Street bridge in Charlestown/Albouystown;Rehabilitation of Kitty Market;regular cleaning and clearing of canals, maintaining the aesthetics of our avenues and open spaces,and most critically ensuring the functionality and operation of our drainage sluices and pumps. The Department continues to face ever growing challenges with both its key sectors of resources, financial and human, but strive to maintain public confidence in the works carried out and planned. We acknowledge the difficulties faced but are always prepared to sacrifice time whenever called upon.
Editor, these engineers primarily carry the life of the Mayor and City Council core services outputs. If these works are not properly planned, execution will be a disaster not only for the strategic master plan of the city but the end users which are the citizens of Georgetown.
Editor, if considered, any desire of these staffs not to cooperate with the Department, giving substandard reports can only be to their detriment and that of the City, noting the key role they played in several works executed and to be executed. We will have a medieval landscape, poor urban services and a city of chaos. All of us at the City Engineer’s Department work astutely to avoid these eventualities on a daily basis and at all cost.
Regards
Ron N Eastman
Deputy City Engineer