Minister Edghill tells contractors, says nothing will stop Guyana’s progress

MINISTER of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill, on Monday inspected several major projects which are behind schedule, with the aim of holding contractors accountable for the delays in infrastructural development.

During an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle, Minister Edghill said that while the Government of Guyana is steadfast in its commitment to the development of the country’s infrastructure, they will not be held responsible for the “lackadaisical attitude” of some of the contractors.
According to the minister, the impromptu visit to some of the project sites on Monday was a result of a recent project meeting that he had with the government engineers.
“My visit to these sites today [Monday] is a result of the last project meeting that I had with my engineers in my office. All the projects in the Region Four area that had issues resolved where we needed clear directions on the way forward were listed, and we have visited all of them. So, we visited all the projects that had issues, and we are seeking resolution so that we will be able to see accelerated work,” Edghill said.

The minister also related that during his trip along the East Bank of Demerara, in the capital city, and along the East Coast of Demerara, he met with some of the residents of these areas who are affected or inconvenienced because of the ongoing works.

“I spoke with the contractors and project engineers, along with some of the workers that were on the respective sites. Some of these projects are behind schedule; we were supposed to be cutting the ribbon to open a few of them already, but that is not the case, and I want to make this very clear,” Edghill said.
And although he applauded some contractors for working towards accomplishing the task at hand effectively, he said: “I will not accept excuses from any contractor. For the longest while, we have had good weather, and the government went over and beyond to ensure that there were adequate supplies of materials. That is the crush, run, and stones; we have that in stockpile, and that is why we could have accelerated the recent work that was done at Red Road.

“No contractor should have to come to me or say to me now that they have a shortage of materials; people must be able to put in the resources and the manpower to get the work moving. We are in October, and we are on the ground saying that this year we have a programme, and we are going to finish this year’s programme based upon our planning. We will not allow people to fall behind by doing their own thing.”

Additionally, Minister Edghill said that President, Dr. Irfaan Ali and his government are working assiduously to accelerate the infrastructural transformation as well as other developments in the various sectors by 2024 so that there could be “smoother sailing” from 2025.

“A lot of the major projects that we are having are either late 2024 completion or early 2025 completion, but you do not wait until the last moment to deal with delays; you start addressing them now. That’s for the major projects in infrastructure development, as well as all the other sectors.
“There is a lot of work to be done, and these are projects such as the Ogle/Eccles project, the railway embankment, and the new Demerara Harbour Bridge, along with the Cemetery Road project, the Aubrey Barker road projects, which should have been completed already, and the Conversation Tree project, which should be completed in November. These are some of the major projects that must be completed by 2024 or early 2025,” Minister Edghill said.

Some of the sites visited were the Grove/Diamond project, the new Demerara Harbour Bridge site, the Ogle/Eccles roads, Aubrey Barker Road, ‘Red Road’, Cemetery Road, Lamaha Street (between Vlissingen Road and Middleton Street), ‘Conversation Tree’, East Coast Railway Embankment, the bridge at Movie Towne and Industry (Orphanage Road).
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