Over the past few months we have been reading in the press of protest action taken by contractors who claimed that they have not received payments for work done for URP Agriculture. I have heard Dr Suruj Rambachan indicate that there must be an audit of work done before payments were made. It would seem that Dr Rambachan has reasons to believe that there is evidence of malpractice in the execution of these contracts.
This is one time I throw my support for Dr Rambachan as I have heard of allegations of corrupt practices in the claims and the execution of these contracts. I have heard allegations as:
1. There were favoured big contractors who sub-contracted to smaller contractors;
2. What would have normally been one contract was divided into three or four contracts;
3. Contracts were not completed but claims for payments made;
4. Some contractors have up to ten registered companies that receive contracts;
5. Cost of contracts were inflated;
6. There were many "ghost" contracts.
Claims were made for contracts which never existed. We, the farmers in the areas where these contracts were supposed to be executed, are anxiously awaiting an audit into those aforementioned allegations. I am very much interested in the audit into contracts that were supposed to be done in the Plum Mitan Lagoon, ie Nariva Swamp area. I must mention there were some genuine small contracts who did a good job in the Felicity area.
Please Mr Minister, since you mentioned some of the works were verified, why not pay these contractors? Again, Mr Minister, I support your move to audit these contracts especially those of the large contractors. I know for sure that your investigations will unveil the truth and expose the corruption if it exists.
Jairam S Maraj,
Chaguanas