Speeches in the National Assembly

April 13, 2012
Mr. Allen:  I am grateful for this privilege to be here to address this honourable House in this Tenth Parliament and to look at this national budget for the year 2012.  The Hon. Minister, in his budget speech, indicated to us that the budget is here to reach the needs of all Guyanese, within and without. The Hon. Minister of Finance with his staff, I personally feel, had to spend some time in preparing this budget. They worked some hours to put these documents together - to gather the figures and some research might have been done. The Hon. Minister told this House that the Government received large sums of revenue from the mining sector. The Government boasted…We should be proud that gold mining is not done in Georgetown; we get gold from the fields. The mining sector which produce… I am speaking now of mining district No. 5. The total sum of gold produced…The Minister did not give us the figures as divided by area, but I know that more than half of that sum came from mining district No. 5.
The Government boasted of revenue received and what it is expected to receive through the projection for 2012. But what has the Government done and is prepared to do for the miners and those persons who have been investing in this field? People have been investing their money, from across this country. And when it would take an operation order to get fuel and food stuff to  a mining  camp when  the miner would have departed from Port Kaituma, with a Model M truck, and it would take him four or five days to get that stuff to his camp, we know, that, right there, there is added expense  for the investor, because of the conditions and, more so, the roads which are in a deplorable state. Here, in this budget, we have not seen anything…I perused it because questions have been asked. I am glad that the Minister, who is responsible for that sector, is here, right now, and he did not take his leave. I am happy because the people will ask questions and are asking questions.  In this budget, when I looked at it, there is nothing for those miners in Matarkai district – mining district No. 5.
If the returns from mining have been so good, and our Minister could have boasted about the amount of   revenue which was received, why not have some of the same revenue been replaced into that area and give the life of the mining sector a better boost?  When the Hon. Minister said that the small and medium scale miners will benefit more, I looked at the Estimates of the Public Sector Current and Capital Revenue and Expenditure to see where the benefits will come from. How benefit will be derived when the same small and medium scale miners are having their lands taken away? Their claims are being taken away and given to other persons. There are persons there…and this is not just an isolated case…It took the Mines Corporation eight years to find that persons who have been paying for their claims are now being told that it is null and void. The same claims are being given to other people.
This is a total abuse by the officers of this Government. They are taking full advantage of people. The Minister is saying that the small and medium scale miners will benefit. These are the people who are producing. This is where we can boast of revenue.
The Land Distribution and Allocation Unit…The crime in this sector… I do not think it has crossed the mind of the Minister while he was preparing and then to say that the small miners will benefit.  I personally, last year, wrote the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs requesting that a senior officer from the Guyana Police Force visit the Matarkai Subregion where miners asked for a meeting with such persons because we could not have gotten officers on the ground to make decisions. They had wanted to give donations to the police force to enable it to curb the situation of   crime in the mining district. No reply was given to us regarding that letter.  For last year, there were eight murders. As I am speaking here, just yesterday, there was another murder. There were five armed robberies. The police are not equipped to get into those backdams to solve the crimes in those areas.
I personally went to Minister Benn’s office, two years ago, and made a request of him…, because he is in charge of transport, and I also shared some concerns. That Minister promised me then… and took my telephone numbers. He said, “I am going to send an officer in. You will hear from me.” To date, I am still waiting to hear…Miners have been complaining. I heard my colleague was saying, about the Guyana Fire Service, … Members would have read, just the other day, that the ferry left Port Kaituma and came out here and had to be rushed back out midstream and there was no fire boat to go and put out the flames on it because the Guyana Fire Service does not have anything in place to deal with fire on the water top. Right now, there are persons who have their mining equipment, at the Transport & Harbour wharf, waiting to go. Up to this afternoon, they said, “Mr. Allen, they cannot tell us as yet when the boat is going to leave.” This is the caring administration that we have.
When I look at this budget, it reminds me of the landlord who does not care about what the tenant goes through. The steps are falling down; the roof is leaking, but all the landlord is concerned about is getting the rent. All I can hear the Minister saying is, “I will be getting more revenue for 2012.” What are we putting in? How the tenant will be getting into the house to give the revenue? I think that this is not good for our people. I, therefore, call on the Government to see that our miners are treated in a better way.
I will look at bridges and roads. Public roads in Region 1… I heard the Minister was saying, yesterday in his presentation, “You can ask Mr. Allen to tell you the truth.  Yes, I am going to speak the truth. That is my good friend, Hon. Minister Mr. Norman Whittaker. One of our Hon. Members was saying tonight that we hear the people are asking for cooperation of  working together.  I remember that on the 25th of February I was in the Mabaruma district and the Minister said to the gathering that there is a Member of Parliament, Mr. Allen, here and he would be going across to the Matarkai Subregion tomorrow. He said to the Regional Executive Officer (REO) that he must notify me because I would have been travelling with them. Lo and behold! The next morning…No one said to me what time the boat was going to be leaving. Yet, this was said, “You will know when the boat is going to leave, because we are supposed to be working together. We are going for a meeting.”    [Mr. Benn: Mr. Allen, I took you on my plane.]      That was not in February, my brother.
When I turned up at the waterfront to get the boat one officer said to me, “Mr. Allen, we cannot carry you. We have eight children who got sick. As you know, it is jumbie business. Last night they got sick and we will have to carry them home.” I said, “If the children have to go home, they are from the Matarkai Subregion, they will have to go.” But then the officer thought I would have turned away, but I did not. I am saying this because I want people to know what is happening out there. The Hon. Minister, when he came down that morning, I was standing on his right, he looked left. I said, “Good morning, Hon. Minister” and he said, “Good morning, Mr. Allen.” Do you know what happened further? That boat left without any children and Mr. Allen continued standing, and no one said anything to me. When they saw me at Port Kaituma, this was said, “Mr. Allen, how did you reach here?” We are supposed to be working together and I can hear my Government officers are saying that people are talking about working together. Is this what we are looking for? I do not think this is what we are asking for.
Our public roads are in a state of disrepair and this honourable House has passed money for contractors to do contract in that Region. Moneys have been paid where we find that it is sometimes substandard works and in some cases no work at all. When questions are asked about these matters people get annoyed. I would ask that the Hon. Minister, when preparing his budget, looks for the projects that he has put money into, years before, to see if those moneys were spent and if they were executed in the manner in which they were supposed to be executed. 
The Hon. Prime Minister said that we should remove the bad elements, but in these cases, what will happen?  We find that contractors continue to get contracts - more money. In the Estimates we will see that there is a road which is supposed to link Oronoque and Port Kaituma; that project started two years ago. The contractors were told at one time that there was no more money. The work started and just before I left home last week, to come here, the work stopped again. Substandard work, yes, is what we are having.
As it would have been known of the Kumaka revetment, when I asked from the officers at regional administration about the contractual agreement they said to me, “Mr. Allen, we do not have the contractual agreement; we do not know anything about the contract.” In the region, if that was true, of what was said, that it  is saying  that it  does  not have the contract, so  it is that  the Government is giving contracts in regions and they do not know about the contract. The work is stalled there right now. Who will pay? Moneys wasted, work has to be done. These are things… I have heard one of our colleagues saying that we must stand and speak the truth.  Yes, we will say exactly what is happening.
We heard about works to be done. I call on this Government to launch an investigation into those projects where moneys have been spent. I have in my possession a document signed by the Regional Engineer, the Regional Executive Officer, the Regional Chairman and everyone who was involved in that project and no work was done on that road. Nothing at all was done. I trust that the Attorney General, who was saying some things along the way, is taking notes and we see action being taken against these officers. These are the same people we have in Government, again, to man the affairs of the regional administrations.
Over the years residents at Barabina have been crying out for better road. We can always hear money spending to do Barabina road. The Hon. Minister here, Mr. Whittaker, since he was the Regional Chairman there, knows what I am speaking about. Just as he said yesterday what he was saying was the truth, just what I am saying is the truth. The people in Barabina, the mud-in, have to walk through the … Right now the buses are not carrying anybody in there. The teachers have to take off their shoes and walk through the water to get to school. Children who are coming out have to walk through the water, and our Minister of Amerindian Affairs said that all the areas are taken care of well. Well, I would not like to see better care than this. People have been asking. I asked the Regional Chairman in the month of February about the Barabina road. He said, “Mr. Allen…”
For the Barabina road, I asked and was told that engineers will be going in from Georgetown to give an update and to advise about the road. To date, there is nothing being said about it. Is this the way we treat out people?
I want to touch quickly on water. I have seen that in the budget presentation the Minister said that the Government will continue to invest in the water sector thereby ensuring that all Guyanese have access to adequate supply of safe potable water. I keep studying this thing. I heard the Minister arguing that the water is very good. I would ask the Minister that the water which is coming through the taps in this compound if he would take it and drink it. Comrades, Mr. Speaker, I went into a building in Georgetown and when I turned on the tap and saw what was coming through I asked the residents this: Is your tank clean? They said, “Mr. Allen, this is not from my tank; this is coming directly from the tap.” They took me down the yard and when I turn on the tap I asked myself if I needed to get sick in Georgetown or  should I  go back home to get water to brush my teeth, because what was coming through that tap it seemed to have problems.
In the North West, there is no where there that treated water is given to the people. Here I am seeing that across the country there is safe potable water. I reported issues where water was coming through… There the [inaudible] like milk. The miners throw their tail ends into the creek, and all is creek water, and there is not even one tank to throw a little chlorine and treat the water so as to pass it through the lines. This is what the schools and everybody have to use.
I look at the amount of money allocated for sports and I ask: What happens here? From Region 1 to Region 10 moneys are allocated for sports, but when I looked I saw that there is nothing for the Matarkai Subregion, or the region at all. When I ask how much money will be allocated to each region… I said to the residents, when I call them, that there is nothing in the budget for Matarkai and, more so, Matthews Ridge. Why? It is because the administration, just last year, was about to sell the community centre of Matthews Ridge. I do not know which part of the world people sell… It has the right not to give any money for sport because the sports ground and the centre are in a deplorable state. The administration ensured that it has left that centre to go down.
Health: I am very happy that the Minister of Health said that it will be training a lot of persons, but when those people are trained they ought to go out to work somewhere. We in here are in a safe building; we are safe from the elements. At Moruka, when the staff of the hospital go into the store they have to walk with an umbrella.  At Port Kaituma, in the clinic, when standing there  one can see the sky. A pregnant mother in the maternity ward left and went in to the toilet and fell. Those matters were reported, and what have happened? Absolutely nothing! When training staff to go out into building, they ought to have somewhere safe to work. At Port Kaituma, there is the nurses’ hostel which started and was supposed to be completed since the year before the last December. To date, it is still framed standing there. The nurses’ quarters… The patients’ utensils are washed with the nurses’. There are Tuberculosis (TB) cases and all sorts of things. The nurses are supposed to be taking care of the patients, but those who are sick and the staff are mingling.
Mr. Speaker: Hon. Member, your time is up.
Mr. Allen: Thank you. [Applause]