Dear Editor
IN a letter to the editor of the Kaieteur News captioned “PAY BACK TIME?”, Miss Gail Teixeira, former government minister and Member of Parliament for the opposition, accused the RDC of Region # 7 of being in collusion with contractor, BK International, to use its infrastructure rehabilitation programme as a deception to garner votes for the APNU in the upcoming Local Government Elections. In her rambling, she suggested that recent works being carried out on the Bartica-Potaro Road is a hurried venture towards this end.

How mistaken is Miss Teixeira

Miss Gail Teixeira’s equating the work of the RDC of Region # 7 and the vision, plans and management of the newly-appointed REO (ag), Holbert Knights, with Local Government Elections is obviously a reflection of her political beguilement and not of her wider intelligence. What seems to be lacking from her writing is a sense of the scope with which Mr. Knights is approaching his work. In a recent meeting with the regional contractors, he outlined the government’s programme to foster a work environment that will boost the local economy and bring long term comfort to the residents of the region.
To even suggest that road rehabilitation, which is just a part of the regional programme, is an LGE stunt is preposterous at best, and is reflective of a narrow focal dept-of-field on behalf of the letter writer.

Why does the Regional Administration of Region # 7 find this writing of Miss Teixeira to be mischievous at this time? She certainly never attacked us on any prior occasion for doing our work. One could imagine she is being spurred by her local political comrades whose combined vision, also, cannot penetrate beyond November 12 of this year. Why was no letter written to criticize the excellent resurfacing of roads along the Byderabo Front and the access to Agatash? Why was no letter written against the initial contracts that started the rehabilitation of the Bartica-Potaro road, by another contractor, prior to the one signed with BK International. I guess Miss Teixeira received a text, but not a context. She wrote without the benefit of the big picture.

We imagine no letter will be written against the works that must continue on behalf of the people of the region, after the LGE season is passed.

No administration, the world over, is perfect. But we, the REO and staff of the RDC of Region # 7, stand by our mandate to serve the people of our region, and the country by extension. We are not politicians. We are public servants. And if, by chance, we disrupt the agenda of the politician in the execution of our duties, sorry to say, but we’ll be hard pressed to apologise for doing our work. No one is indebted to us. Instead, we owe a debt of service to our residents, even the critics among us. AND YES, THIS IS PAY BACK!

Regards
Alden Marslowe,
Regional Information Officer,
Region # 7.