Region Five works programmes on time and on budget – REO

GINA, GUYANA, Thursday, October 20, 2016

Region Five, Regional Executive Officer (REO), Ovid Morrison, said that the Region’s 2016 works programmes is on time and on budget and on value, notwithstanding the eight-month political standoff at the Regional Democratic Council (RDC).

In a recent interview with the Government Information Agency (GINA,) Morrison said that the Regional Administration which has responsibility for the implementation and execution of budgeted programmes, was not caught up in the dispute.

“Even though there was that stand-off, the (regional) administration was still going ahead with fulfilling (their duties), because we saw it (the conflict) differently from perhaps, how some councillors saw it,” Morrison said.

Regional Engineer, Dhanpall Sukha, said that the May-June rain that caused flooding in several parts of the region was a major challenge. He said this caused delays in the execution of the region’s road construction and road maintenance programme.

The flooding also resulted in the diversion of resources, financial and physical, to affected areas.

Despite these challenges, 92 per cent of the Region’s works programme is completed, Sukha said, adding that the programme will be 100 percent completed by the end of the year. Works done include, the rehabilitation and upgrade of several community roads and streets, and the construction of several bridges.

The engineer further explained that the administration is also executing, before the year-end, a few other projects for the region. These projects will be funded with the savings incurred from the difference between budgeted allocations for the 2016 project as against the awarded sums.

Sukha said that in the health sector, the Region is in the process of constructing a laboratory and a sterilization unit at the Fort Wellington Hospital, having already successfully completed the construction of a new Diabetic Foot Centre at the Mahaicony Hospital and, under the

current programme, facilitating maintenance works to its 15 health centres, two hospitals and its several doctor’s quarters.

In the areas of education, Sukha explained that for 2016, the region has successfully completed a new technical block at the Number 8 Secondary School and has extended the Waterloo Nursery School.

There have also been upgrades to several others nursery schools, repairs to the Head Teacher and Deputy Head Teacher quarters at the Bygveal Secondary School, as well as repairs the Rosignol Primary School, Sukha noted.

He explained that under the 2016 education programmes, all the 72 schools in the region benefitted from repairs during the July-August vacation.

The standoff at the RDC, which lasted for eight months, stemmed from councillors of the APNU/AFC demanding an apology from the Regional Chairman, Vickchand Ramphal, premised on claims that he had disrespected President David Granger by not showing up for an event on January 15, where the President commissioned two buses under the then Three ‘Bs’ initiative.

The matter came to an end in August when the President visited the region for an Emancipation event and called on all Council members to let ‘bygones be bygones’ for the good of the Region.

 

By: Macalia Santos