By Kurt Campbell
[www.inewsguyana.com] – Rickety stellings; congested city streets; failing ferries; deteriorating hinterland airstrips; broken bridges; impassable roadways and weakened kokers and sea defences have all become impediments to everyday commuting, communication and commerce.
This was highlighted by the main opposition party – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) – at the party’s weekly press conference.
According to Opposition Leader David Granger, “this deterioration of public infrastructure is impeding national development.” He further sought to blame the incumbent People’s Progressive Party Civic PPP/C Government for same.
“The People’s Progressive Party/Civic administration has no comprehensive plan to invest in, improve or increase public infrastructure assets” he said, adding that “the administration, however, pursues costly white elephant structures or politically glamorous projects – such as the so-called five-star hotel– rather than pursuing practical projects to develop essential infrastructure which could make life easier for the general population.”
Granger listed air transport, road transport, river transport, sea defence and information technology as areas of infrastructure that need urgent improvement.
He told reports that a plan to coordinate the efforts and consolidate the resources of various state agencies involved in public infrastructural works is missing and must be put in place by the Government.
“The Ministry of Public Works is charged with general responsibility for infrastructure. The Ministry of Housing and Water, the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment and the Office of the President have also become involved in attempting to administer various infrastructural projects” he said.
Granger completed a statement he read calling on the PPP/C to formulate a coherent policy and promulgate a comprehensive infrastructural plan in order to “avert confusion in the delivery of services and to avoid wasteful expenditure of state funds.”
