Region 6 REO’s inexperience may cost residents millions – RDC Chairman

Residents of Region 6 (East Berbice-Corentyne) will be short-changed, as millions of dollars that were allocated for developmental purposes in the area may have to be returned to the national treasury at the end of 2015.

Region Six Chairman David Armogan

This is because of the inexperience of APNU/AFC appointed REO, Veerasammy Ramayah. He had been described by Minister of the Presidency Joe Harmon as a “quasi political” rather than a qualified bureaucrat that REO’s are supposed to be.”

While the other regional offices throughout the country are carrying out developmental works with funds allocated, Region Six is having major difficulties doing the same.

Regional Chairman David Armogan told Guyana Times on Monday that although $260 million was awarded to the region for its advancement and to cater for the needs of the people in the area, only $15 million in capital works has been spent thus far.

“We are pretty slow right in terms of expending the $260 million, only having spent $15 million to date, and we only have a month and half really to spend out all this money. So, we have to really speed up,” he said.

According to Armogan, while the money is there for the regional office to utilise, many of the works are yet to be awarded thereby preventing a large number of very important projects from being executed.

“The slowdown in awarding these contracts is because the tender board, we have a new Regional Executive Officer (REO), who seem to be having difficulties with procedures that govern the operations of the tender board. He is the Chairman of the tender board, but in some cases if the tender board is called, the work has not been evaluated, so they have to go back and they can’t meet because unless the thing is evaluated you can’t go and award tenders,” Armogan told this newspaper.

He acknowledged that while the REO, Dr Veerasammy Ramayya, is “willing” to have these projects carried out, there were many procedural errors.

Veerasammy Ramayah

According to the Regional Chairman, these errors occur because the REO is lacking sufficient knowledge about tender procedures and this issue needs to be rectified immediately.

“It is a matter of knowledge with tender procedures, there is lack of knowledge, so every time now you have to go and correct what you did already so that is where the problem is … I think he needs to learn the work very fast, I don’t think he has an understanding of the work and he needs to learn very fast because we don’t have the time. He doesn’t come to me, I will teach him, but he doesn’t come, he is the kind of a person thinks he knows everything,” he stated.

Guyana Times was further told that while Armogan was willing to assist in areas where Dr Ramayya may not have enough knowledge about or was ill-informed, the REO never asked for help or assistance in such matters.

As a result, this will cause the regional office to come to a stand-still on the developmental works of the region, thereby affecting residents in the area.

“He is this kind of a person who believes that he knows it all and I think there is where the problem is, he doesn’t come for consultation and try to learn things from other people who have been around for some time and who have the experience,” Armogan complained.

He added that the region has a number of outstanding projects inclusive of buying equipment for the regional hospitals to improve services.

This newspaper understands that when the regional officials recently met with the budget committee, the members on the committee expressed dissatisfaction with the level of spending by the region.

As such, the REO and other officials were urged to ensure that they accelerate their spending so as to utilise as much money as possible before the end of this year to ensure that projects are executed as budgeted for.

He reminded that whatever money was not used by the regional office would have to be returned to the national treasury and if this amount was not spent as catered for, then the residents of the region stood to lose a lot in terms of services being delivered to them.

Recently, the Councillors of the Opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) who have seats on the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Six moved a ‘no confidence’ motion against Dr Ramayya.

This motion was filed on the grounds that Dr Ramayya did not possess the minimum prerequisite academic qualifications, his appointment as REO was of a political nature, and he lacked experience in accounting, finance or management which were crucial for his position and more.

The ‘no confidence’ motion was brought to the RDC’s monthly statutory meeting by PPP/C Councillor Haseef Yusuf on Thursday last. (kristenm@guyanatimesgy.com)