–Jagdeo says; emphasises importance of consequences for shoddy work

AS the government continues its no-nonsense approach to those who fail to execute their responsibilities properly, the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary, Bharrat Jagdeo is demanding answers for what transpired at the Aubrey Barker Road, where power poles collapsed, leaving residents without electricity.

With the works ongoing at the Aubrey Barker Road, which is contributing to the enhancement of South Georgetown’s landscape, the PPP General Secretary, who also serves as Guyana’s Vice-President, during his Thursday press conference, underscored the importance of works being carried out correctly.
While accidents do happen, Jagdeo said: “I started digging into this more and this was not an ordinary accident… So we looked at what happened and Public Works and GPL have to give a credible explanation because I am going to be on their case until we get to the bottom of this.”
He said: “These poles that were moved there, from the wooden poles to concrete poles, were moved out of the pathway to expand the road… I am told they were not laid according to specifications.”
With that said, Jagdeo stated that the Ministry of Public Works now has to say who designed the poles, the contractor and supervisor involved.

“Either the contractor did not do their work properly…and if the contractor did not do their work properly, they had to do this with the complicity of the [supervisor] and there should be consequences. People have to be blacklisted and fired for this sort of thing – or it’s not going to change,” Jagdeo emphasised.

He further criticised engineers for disruptive construction practices, including unnecessarily digging up long stretches of roads and drainages that is inconveniencing communities in a major way.
State-employed engineers now receive competitive salaries, he outlined, removing any excuse for poor performance.

“We have a bunch of engineers who just go and walk around the road and discomfort people all the time, when they could work different,” he lamented.
The General Secretary went on to say: “It is time we start terminating people who are not doing their work; who are being paid by the government to oversee work that should’ve been done properly.”

Recently, Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips visited the site where emergency repairs were being carried out by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) on Aubrey Barker Road between Congress Drive and Kaikan Street in Georgetown. The emergency works were necessary after four concrete power poles collapsed.