Dear Editor,
I WISH to reply to a letter written by Mr. Anthony A. Haynes and published in the Guyana Chronicle on August 4th, 2017, under the caption: ”The Reverend’s description of the execution of road works on Agriculture Road is incorrect.” This letter was also published in the Stabroek News as well as Kaieteur News as a reply to my previous letter published in the Kaieteur News on July 23,2017.

In Mr Haynes’s reply to me, he answered some questions I raised in my letter pertaining to the road contract and the cost of the road. He went on to say that my letter is a ”missive” with typical vocabulary of these guys who believe they are the gods of the day. I want Mr. Haynes to know that I am a man of impeccable character and integrity and I have written about this road from the past PPP Administration to this current administration. I will never write something and publish it in the press that is inaccurate. In this reply, I wish to refute his claims that my letter previously was ”incorrect.”

Mr. Haynes wrote the following: ”The Ministry of Public Infrastructure under its Miscellaneous Roads Programme, 2017. The contractor is K.P. Thomas and Sons Incorporated, the Project Engineer is Anthony A. Haynes, the contract sum is $59,031,149 and the site extends a distance of approximately 1230m. Carriageway works include the upgrading of the road structure with mixed loam and/or crusher run and sealing, using asphaltic concrete. The contract is scheduled to end in September of 2017.Rev. Gideon Cecil purports to have excellent knowledge in road construction and would have been on the site with the current contractor for the duration of the contract, which commenced on July 6, 2017.”

First, I want this contractor to know that I live in Agriculture Road and I traverse this road more than six times a day and I am not blind to notice the poor, deplorable work he has done; if he claimed that this sloppy work he has done is being undertaken by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure under its Miscellaneous Roads Programme, 2017, then he is obviously giving this Ministry of Public Infrastructure a bad name and I am calling on Minister Patterson, Joe Harmon, and the Minister of Agriculture to come into Agriculture Road to evaluate this deplorable work Mr. Haynes claimed cost $59,031,149 that is more than ridiculous.

What he has done from the beginning of Agriculture Road to Block CC he claimed to be 1230 metres approximately 0.75 miles road works is TO PATCH HOLES, throw in some crush and run and just roll it over to the massive total of $59,031,149. From what I know about costs for construction and what I have investigated from engineers of very high caliber, this deplorable job executed by this contractor is K.P. Thomas and Sons Incorporated, the Project Engineer is Anthony A. Haynes, cannot cost 4 million Guyana dollars for inferior materials used.

So Mr. Editor I ask this contractor, what are his labour costs for this job he said is scheduled to end in September of 2017 that has already ended, since all his heavy-duty road equipment has been removed and this work has stopped over a week now. From the inception, they started this work they did not work two weeks consecutively, they just came out late, laze around and work like two hours daily and this man has the audacity to say I am lying about this work that is stopped currently which he claims will last until next month end.

My question is where he is now and why did he stop the work? I am calling on the current administration to conduct an audit of the cost of this road and the fees charged by the contractor K.P. Thomas and Sons Incorporated, the Project Engineer is Anthony A. Haynes, to execute such deplorable work. When this work was commenced, we were elated that we would get a road like the road constructed through Market Street. It’s unfortunate that the quality of this road is already damaged by the very heavy-duty vehicles coming in here like 40-foot container trucks, sand trucks, huge trucks transporting hymacs to the back dam etc, etc. The following pictures of this contractor’s miserable job I have attached here; I would like you to print them as proof of what I have written.

I would like to invite any media house, channel 67,65,28,11,6,9 to contact me through this newspaper to come and carry this road project on national television. I invite any Minister of Government to come and investigate if just patching and filling holes can cost an exorbitant $59,031,149 that is not a new road this contractor is constructing.

Regards
Rev. Gideon Cecil