The husband of Junior Minister of Communities with responsibility for housing, Valerie Adams-Yearwood, has been awarded contracts to construct homes for a Government-spearheaded housing project.
Inews understands that the project falls under the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA). However, efforts by this newspaper to contact the Minister with responsibility for the housing sector proved futile.
This issue of the award of the contract to the Minister’s husband was revealed by Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, who told reporters at his weekly press conference on Wednesday that the matter came to the fore after a construction worker, who was sub-contracted by the Minister’s husband, complained of not being paid as yet.
The construction worker from Victoria Village, East Coast Demerara, has since written President David Granger as his last hope, seeking the Head of State’s intervention in the matter since he too owes his workers.
According to Jagdeo, the desperate man came to his office, showing him all the correspondence he had sent out, but only got letters of acknowledgement from the President’s Secretary.
“(Godfrey) Yearwood sub-contracted these guys from the villages to do the work and then refused to pay them for the work done. So he came here and he showed me… Four times he addressed the matter (to the President) and four acknowledgment of his complaints and until now, he can’t get (any recourse).
“Over a year of trying, he sought help from the President and no help has been given. He can’t pay his workers from the village of Victoria; they’re harassing him, because the Minister’s husband refusing to pay for contracts he got from the Ministry his wife runs,” Jagdeo said
