President Dr Irfaan Ali this morning lashed out at several senior officials in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) over their inability to address a number of issues that are affecting residents at Mara, on the East Bank of Berbice.
The Head of State made several interventions to have those matters resolved during a Cabinet Outreach with residents.
The Mara residents had raised concerns about drainage issues and the pace of construction of the community’s main access road.
“I am disappointed with the engineer coming to communities, not preparing any report, not following up on anything. The areas with gaps, we have to fill. We are paying people and we’re not going to tolerate the lack of care and concern for the community.”
“The Cabinet is in the field every single day–we’re making the resources available. In a small society like ours, we can’t have little Gods all over the place,” Ali said.
The President also expressed his disapproval over the payment of old age pensions, which residents have to travel all the way into the town of New Amsterdam to collect despite instructions previously given for the money to be paid right in the community.
“I’m upset… That’s a Cabinet directive so somebody has to answer some questions. And I’m disappointed with the Regional Executive Officer (REO) because knows of the policy and he never reported to the Minister that the pension is not paid in the community,” the Guyanese Leader noted.
Nevertheless, during the outreach, President Ali indicated that five acres of state land will be cleared for farming activities–a move that will benefit some 70 farmers in the East Bank Berbice area.
Meanwhile, the Head of State also committed to fixing transportation challenges for the 16 children attending school in New Amsterdam, aiming to find a solution before the end of next week.
He also expressed plans to start work on a new well and canal before the end of the year, expected to greatly benefit the community.
Going forward, the President said a new approach would be taken with the direct involvement of residents, especially with regard to road construction projects.
“I’m disappointed with the performance of the regional engineers and the REO in addressing some of these issues… We’re very disappointed, like the residents, with the pace at which the [road] work is being done. We’ve made the resources available and it’s totally outrageous the pace at which the work is being done.”
“We’re not here to hide any issue or misrepresent any issue. This is what good governance is. We promised you that we will come to you and listen to you, and make decisions in your interest, and that is what we’re doing,” the Guyanese Leader posited.
President Ali and his Cabinet Ministers, including Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, and Culture, Youth and Sports Minister Charles Ramson, are on a two-day outreach in Region Six during which they are slated to engage residents from a number of communities and visit several major project sites.
The leaders also engaged with residents of Rosehall, Port Mourant and Manchester on Saturday.
