March 3, 2016. Source: Citizensreportgy.com
A TOTAL of $7M will be spent by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport on the restoration of the Forbes Burnham mausoleum in an effort to ensure that the site is “preserved and kept in a manner befitting the resting place” of a former president.
In responses to questions by the People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C), Minister Nicolette Henry, in a document seen by Citizens’ Report, details the spending on the Burnham site.
Some $3M is to rehabilitate the monument and complex, while $1M is for works to the roof, murals, walls, floor and tomb. Another $1M will be spent on the mausoleum to ensure its “long term survival” and $1.2M is for overall improvements to the site. A further $800,000 will be spent on painting.
Meanwhile, in comparison, only $4M is budgeted for a security hut and perimeter fence at the Enmore Martyrs Monument. A lesser $2.9M is budgeted for works on the Damon Monument, although the details of such works were not disclosed.
The expenditures come at a time when the current A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) is yet to officially release the report from the International Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into the death of Dr Walter Rodney – a report which also covered the local state of affairs under Burnham.
The Commission’s report concluded Rodney’s assassination was a “State organised” act that was executed with the knowledge of the then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, who had “large and detailed” knowledge of what was being done by the State and its agencies during his tenure. The report details also detailed the link to the principle of party paramountcy and the use of the GPF and Guyana Defence Force (GDF), as well as the judiciary, to go after persons who were seen as opposition elements. Quoting the testimony of Tacuma Ogunseye, the report noted that the then Prime Minister Burnham was prepared to “do anything to maintain power and that included violence and death.”
Additionally, under conservation of other heritage sites – a total of 10 locations across Regions 2 (Pomeroon/ Supenaam), Three (Essequibo Islands/ West Demerara) and Seven (Cuyuni/ Mazaruni) – total of $6.2M will be spent.
