Awaiting yet another completion deadline for an ill-conceived project

DEAR EDITOR, During a site visit to the Hope Canal Project (HCP) on Dec 19, 2014, Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Ramsammy gave the assurance after five (5) previously projected completion deadlines were missed that the project which was launched in October 2010 would finally be completed December 31, 2014. December 31, 2014 came and went and HCP is far from completion and unlikely to be fully operational for another year or so before flood waters could be safely released from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) into the Atlantic Ocean. The unfinished channel to be dug through the foreshore from the sluice to the ocean is just one of those ‘few minor works left to be done’ as claimed. There are many other substantial project components still to be completed before the project could be considered functional. It is claimed that contracts for the Project totaling G$3.6B were awarded for construction of a sluice, road bridge, head regulator and a 10.3 km long canal. The project is ongoing and therefore its final project cost is still to be determined. No cost was ever given for the 10.3 km long canal which is being constructed by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), the executing agency, and since it is an integral part of the project and publicly funded, taxpayers have a right to know what is its construction cost and why it was ‘cherry picked’ from the project and given to the NDIA for construction without any competitive bidding. After all, NDIA has limited technical and management capabilities to construct large canals in complex soil structures and to award itself this difficult HCP job which it is still struggling to complete is mind boggling, as its inefficient and incompetent bureaucracy escalates the cost by the day, and this is being kept a state secret. HCP has large time and cost overruns and Minister Ramsammy should make public what they really are. He should also state why liquidating damages will not be applied to the contractors for their failures to complete their contracts on time while they continue to be rewarded with other Government contracts despite their poor construction record on HCP and the other Govt. contracts which they were awarded subsequently and continue to execute poorly. In other jurisdictions, penalty would have been applied on these contractors to enable the Govt. to recoup losses suffered, while serving as a deterrent for a repeat of future failures. Operation and maintenance (e.g. continual clearing of the grass in the canal and bush on its banks) costs are yet to be estimated and budgeted for HCP. Construction of the Hope Canal Project is to relieve flood water from the EDWC into the Atlantic Ocean via a sluice at Hope/Dochfour thus preventing any catastrophic flooding of coastal lowlands in Demerara. Its construction was not intended to prevent flooding of homesteads and cultivated lands on the east bank of the Mahaica River claimed to be caused from releases of flood water from the EDWC into the Mahaica River via the Lama and Maduni Sluices. During heavy rainfall the Mahaica River and EDWC catchments, which are in the same region, are usually in flood mode simultaneously, and their water levels while in flood modes allow very little cross flows if any between them. Therefore significant discharges of flood water from EDWC through the Maduni and Lama sluices into the Mahaica River when it is in flood mode, to make a bad situation worse, has not been evident. Further, the estuary of the Mahaica River is heavily silted restricting discharges into the ocean. Because of this partial blockage of the river by shifting mud banks, flood water from the Mahaica catchment backs up as it flows downstream, overtopping its banks, in the process causing extensive damage. To address this problem requires another project. Minister Ramsammy was rather hypocritical when he stated that he was thankful to those experienced professionals who have objectively scrutinized and criticized HCP since its inception. He is fully aware that his Ministry and the PPP Governmet in general do not work collaboratively with those who do not share their political philosophy, and therefore they have not reached out beyond their insular circle of long term aides and recalibrated their thinking for fresh ideas in light of rapidly changing circumstances, but have remained secretive with respect to the planning of projects, award of contracts, their costs and execution. Therefore those professionals who have been critical of the Government’s political manoeuvres with respect to these topics have had to use unorthodox methods to obtain the relevant information necessary for them to unearth and report on the Government’s clandestine practices as they relate to economic development, selection of projects, award of contracts and equipment purchases. Despite bona fide requests for site visits, Guyanese have been refused entry and locked out of construction sites to see how their taxes are being deployed. Public documents remain unavailable and there is no accountability on the expenditure of public funding for many of the projects being executed, as the legal imperatives are disregarded with impunity. HCP has been badly planned, designed, managed and executed by local personnel who lack the knowledge, experience and skills necessary to undertake complex projects but were nevertheless given assignments, not because of their competency, but because their services were relatively cheap and they were well-connected politically. Hence, the extensive failure of projects as a result of poor planning, design and execution, resulting in large time and cost overruns. Government personnel reviewing and overseeing these projects have not performed any better and instead of employing people with the knowledge and skills to assist them fill the gaps of their experience and competency as is done elsewhere to enable them do their job professionally, they blindly succumb to political micro-management in the execution of their duties which have led them into situations where they have become scapegoats for the many botched projects executed under their responsibility. They just carried out orders, so no one was disciplined for the ‘foul-ups’. The NDIA did not accede to requests for permission to visit HCP sites. However, I have in my possession aerial coverage of the project which was taken on December 14. These photos clearly indicate the tremendous amount of work yet to be done to make HCP operational, and there was no way these could have been completed before the December 31 deadline which the public was so confidently assured by Minister Ramsammy during his partial site visit on December 19. Hence another reset. The Hope Canal Project was the brainchild of former President Jagdeo and Natural Resources Minister Robert Persaud. The Project was ill-conceived and hurriedly put together without any feasibility study. Design flaws and other factors slowed construction progress resulting in its completion suffering endless postponements. Once again Minister Ramsammy will have to set another completion deadline when the HCP will be finally operational to safely release flood water from EDWC into the Atlantic Ocean in volumes consistent with its design parameters. Charles Sohan