Sports minister lambasts APNU+AFC over mismanagement of synthetic track projects

Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Charles Ramson Jr has chastised the APNU+AFC opposition for its poor management of the synthetic track projects in Regions Six and Ten.

Responding to questions posed by the opposition on Wednesday in the National Assembly, Minister Ramson drew attention to the $320 million Berbice synthetic track at Burnham Park in New Amsterdam, and the $179 million project at the Bayroc Community Centre Ground, Wismar, Linden, Region Ten, for which the contracts were signed in October 2018.

However, while each project was estimated to be completed within six months, works on the tracks dragged on, with then Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr George Norton assuring Guyanese that the project would soon be completed.

“That was December 2019. None of that was completed, and here is the kicker, they promised that the track would be completed, first started by the end of 2018, then they assured that it would be completed by the end of 2019. Here is the kicker, they never even paid for the synthetic material,” Minister Ramson informed the National Assembly.

Contracts to source the synthetic material for the tracks were later awarded by the PPP/C Administration on May 31, 2021, to the tune of some €1.031 million.

The government also had to complete several projects to get to the stage of laying the asphalt, which was completed in early November last year.

The laying of the synthetic material at the Berbice and Linden tracks is scheduled to commence in April.