ASSISTANT Regional Executive Officer (AREO) of the Moruca Sub-Region in Region 1, Rennita Williams, has expressed concern that disunity among officials in the region has been hampering development.

According to Williams, who oversees four programmes in the Moruca sub-Region: Education, Health, Administration and Public Works, the sub-region is highly political and because the discord begins at the regional level and is politically motivated, there is constant criticism that no development is taking place.

This, she said, is far from the truth, noting that a lot of developmental projects have been executed with some still ongoing in the sub-region, where she is tasked with ensuring that the programmes are executed and run efficiently, as well as monitoring the spending of the sub-region’s budget.

To this end she works in collaboration with all of the programme heads within the region.
Listed among the developmental projects are the construction of a new concrete bridge which has been benefitting all residents; rehabilitation of the Kumaka to Kwebanna road; construction of a doctors’ quarters at Waramuri and new health centre at Parakeese and Kwebanna; renovation of the teachers’ quarters at Kumaka Hill and the living quarters for teachers at the Santa Rosa Secondary dormitory.

Williams, who hails from Koka Village in Santa Rosa, but spent most of her teenage life in neighbouring Venezuela before returning in 2001, expressed her satisfaction with the amount of development that has been taking place in the sub-regions.

She, however, has some reservation with how the awarding of contracts for the repairs of roads is being done. According to Williams, in the sub-region one individual is repeatedly being awarded contracts even though there has been evidence of sub-standard work being done throughout the years.

This, she said, has been occurring even before she assumed office. She pointed out that on two occasions after taking up her post, roads have been graded and shaped, but not long after they were back to a deplorable condition.

The AREO explained that the awarding of contracts is done at the region, but pointed out that sometime back she had been experiencing difficulties with regard to receiving key documents, such as Bills of Quantities for projects.

However, the situation has changed since a new engineer is now in place and she is now fully aware of all that is taking place.