— VICE-PRESIDENT encourages citizens

VICE-President, Dr Bharrat Jagdeo is calling on citizens to be watchful and to continue to expose and report badly-done roads and other infrastructural projects being implemented in their communities as it assists the government in the monitoring of contractors and works being done.

Dr Jagdeo made these remarks on Friday during a social media programme while responding to questions about the government’s oversight, and accountability on the massive infrastructural works ongoing across the country.

Noting that the supervision is not always very strong and this enables contractors to cut corners and do rip-off work, the Vice-President encouraged citizens to use social media to bring these matters to light.
“It will be a potent way of helping. I don’t see it as a negative…. When people post shoddy work being done on a road on their Facebook page, or send it to a government ministry, I’m happy. Many people think ‘oh they’re criticising the government’ [but] it means that our people are vigilant. They’re acting as our eyes on the ground,” Dr Jagdeo explained.

In reporting issues of concern, Dr Jagdeo pointed out that the citizens are playing their role in ensuring that they are not stuck with infrastructure that does not benefit them and defeating the reason money was spent on improvements in the first place.

“People should do this because ultimately if the contractor does shoddy work in your area and the road deteriorates quickly, you are going to suffer. So that’s how I see it,” Dr Jagdeo said.
According to the Vice-President, with the government not able to monitor projects as thoroughly as possible, citizen-reporting plays a vital role in flagging substandard work.

He also noted that there are many cases where he is able to put relevant ministries on notice to look into work being done by contractors, thanks to social media posts by citizens.
“So many cases I’ve sent to [the Ministries of] Public Works or Local Government to follow up on based on Facebook post based on shoddy work. We can’t be everywhere because there’s so much work being done now. And sometimes they [citizens] see it first [and] they draw your attention to it,” he said

The Vice-President called on other citizens to also be just as vigilant.
“I believe that people should utilise that more. Send the information to the ministries, post it on their webpages, take a picture of the shoddy work being done on a contract, post it on public works page, send it to [Minister of Public Works Juan] Edghill, [Deodat] Indar and [Minister of Local Government and Regional Development] Nigel Dharamlall or the Regional Chairman. Say I just sent this post on your page. So that if they don’t follow up public pressure will ensure that they follow up,” he said.