In mid-June chairmen and mayors of the 14 regional corporations were summoned to a meeting with Education Minister Anthony Garcia and Local Government and Rural Development Minister Kazim Hosein to discuss shifting school refurbishment and repair programme from the Educational Facilities Company Limited (EFCL) to the regional corporations.
With the move, regional corporations, it is expected, would be responsible for selecting schools for repair and selecting contractors from within the individual regions to carry out the repair work, while the Ministry of Education through EFCL would be responsible for payments. The idea would be for the pre-qualified contractors at each corporation to bid on jobs.
After two such meetings, while chairmen await word on the proposal, Garcia will bring a note to Cabinet this week recommending that EFCL continue the work for this year.
Chairmen interviewed by the Guardian raised concerns about the shift of responsibilities, including a need for capacity building within the regional corporations as well as a firm decision on how these projects would be funded.
Chairmen willing but still have concerns
In an interview on Friday, Chairman of the Sangre Grande Regional Corporation Terry Rondon said he in particular was in favour of the move.
“We would do most of the supervision and the ministry would do most of the funding. I am happy because many times when schools not ready people complain to the borough corporation and there is nothing we can do about it, but we know there will be proper accountability and transparency as already exists at the local government level,” Rondon said.
He said he expected to meet with both ministers on Monday to finalise the way forward for the proposal.
Chairman of the Tunapuna Piarco Regional Corporation (TPRC) Paul Leacock said while he was in support of the move it was still in the discussion stage.
“The funds would have to be from the Education Ministry and we expect assistance with project management and engineering. In the case of the TPRC, we are in the process of signing a MOU with the University of the West Indies and we expect to discuss with them getting assistance in those areas.”
Paul said the regional corporations were not short of expertise but had one major concern. “We would want the issue of payment to be settled because local government usually pays the bills on time and we would want that to continue,” said Leacock.
According to media reports, in 2016 EFCL owed contractors between $600 and $800 million dollars.
This is the main concern of Chairman of the Siparia Regional Corporation Glenn Ramadharsingh who accused the Government of shifting EFCL’s problems to local government.
He said the Government needed to solve the problems at EFCL before shifting the responsibility to corporations.
“AT EFCL there are people owed money and schools cannot be opened because of payment issues. I am not excited to be involved in that kind of work. You are taking a problem and giving it to local government.
“Solve the problem at the source. I am not saying local government should not be involved but it must not be to shut off parts of an agency riddled with problems with integrity, transparency issues and allegations about the way they operate and it is in a state of anarchy and unable to deliver quality education in rural communities,” Ramadharsingh said.
He said EFCL’s numerous issues must be dealt with first.
Ministers: All part of Local Govt Reform
In an interview at the Parliament building on Friday, Garcia said the move had nothing to do with EFCL’s issues and everything to do with the Government’s policy on local government reform.
Even so, he said he was making a recommendation to Parliament that EFCL continue the repair programme for this year in order to give regional corporations time to properly prepare for the programme.
“The technical staff at the corporation explained that while the corporations would have no difficulty in rising to the challenge there were things they would have to overcome in order to adjust and that the time frame was not sufficient for that arrangement to take place,” Garcia said.
He said some corporations indicated that they did not have an updated list of pre-qualified contractors while others did not have sufficient project managers or engineers to handle the additional work.
In addition, the ministry was also looking at the procurement aspect of the move and was still exploring Central Tenders Board regulations to determine whether it could go forward.
“The ministry decided that this year it would engage in the usual manner with EFCL but with input from the regional corporations. The schools would be grouped according to the regions or boroughs they are located within and the corporation would work closely with EFCL.
Speaking to the Sunday Guardian yesterday, Local Government Minister Kazim Hosein said he welcomed the move as part of rural development and local government, because more authority would be given to local government.
“If you are choosing the contractors from the community hardwares benefit, the workers, small businesses and local contractors all benefit. You don’t want someone from Toco coming to do repairs in Princes Town.”