Dear Editor,
It was with unbridled disgust that I read the November 5 article in ‘News Room’ captioned “Edghill warns contractors to improve execution of road shoulder work or face termination”. That feeling stood in stark contrast to how I felt about the Minister and the Ministry of Public Works around this time in 2024. This story really dates back to circa August 2023, when, upon giving up working in the interior, I visited the Ministry and indicated my interest in building interior roads. I already had some equipment which I knew I would be unlikely to have re-cross the Essequibo by barge. I was told to register with the secretary of an appropriately high-ranking engineer – whom I did not know personally – and so I did. At the time i thought I was just going through the motions.
I was pleasantly surprised – indeed almost shocked, but very impressed – when circa October 2024 I received a phone call inviting my company to the Arthur Chung Conference Centre for an orientation meeting with the Minister concerning Community Road contracts. The meeting was attended by a very wide cross-section of persons – many being hopeful to be first-time recipients of small contracts (of a maximum of $15m) – truly reflecting the demographics of Region 4, and I think Region 5 also. Minister Edghill described the mission and what was expected of contractors in terms of execution, assuring all in his booming voice that “there’s plenty of work for everybody”. The Minister explained that roads, drains and pavements had to be built in every community.
A few weeks later came another phone call, this time inviting my company to attend the Conference Centre to be issued with a road-building contract. We commenced work early in December, and with a few unavoidable delays, completed our road in Farm, EBD, in record time (as in before many others) and perfectly quality-wise also. So good was the work we did, that an engineer recommended us to continue to completion, work on the framework of the swimming pool, and the complete build of the tennis court and pickleball court at the new Four Points by Sheraton Hotel. We did not receive any call in respect of the second round of the issuing of Community Road contracts.
The 2025 Elections came and went. It was thought by all that after passing of the 2026 Budget more small contracts would be issued. I considered my company to be well poised to receive a call next time. The next time produced the debacle at Providence. My company was not invited – and I know others who also were not invited – but apparently the meeting descended into sheer farce with allegations of ‘friends, family and favourites’ being bandied about. The Vice-President stepped in, and scrapped or suspended the programme at a further meeting held at the Convention Centre the following week.
Now lo and behold, there appears the November 5 article in ‘News Room’, in which the Bishop stated that 482 contracts were signed for road shoulder works and alleyways – with more than 50% awarded to first-time contractors. The Minister commented “this wuk is not free money…this is a contract just like when you got a contract to build a road”.
I was a first-time contractor at the end of 2024. Every contractor starts as a first-timer – but where is the progression for all contractors? It is my guess that there has been progression for some small contractors. I now have good reason to believe the allegations of “highway robbery”, and moreover, that such is not only restricted to big road-building contracts. If the small contracts are not advertised with invitations for bidding (those referred to in the article were not) then there ought to be a system that reflects some form of transparency.
A simple meritocracy would suffice. Those who performed their contracts the best in terms of quality of the finished product and feedback of residents, ought to be rewarded by recall for a further contract. The road my company produced was top quality, neighbours were given written notices through their letterboxes about impending inconveniences – and we readily paid to fix a main that was broken on a Friday evening by the digging of an excavator.
Many contractors invested in equipment but have no work to justify their investment. Some have to make NIS payments for workers who were, in the circumstances, one-off casually engaged workers rather than employees engaged on an ongoing basis – as was the impression confidently given by Bishop Juan Edghill in reassuringly booming tones. A revisit to the records of the works done by the various 2024/25 first-time contractors would be helpful. Some produced work so shoddy that YouTube videos were produced by disappointed and enraged residents of some communities. Other works were so well executed that surely the contractors involved deserve another chance to repeat or even better their first job – and give those workers who are still available and eager to work, the chance to work again and earn an honest income for the betterment of self and family.
Yours faithfully,
Ronald Bostwick
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