Throwing away our taxpayer dollars

THE EDITOR: “Not working for 30 years” was the bewildering headline of a recent news story about flooding in the Penal-Debe area.

Mechanical pumps and sluice gates costing millions of taxpayers’ dollars had been non-functioning for 30 years, through the incompetence, or inexperience, of ministry personnel.

I am dismayed at the relative ease with which inexperienced personnel can spend millions of dollars on unproductive projects without accounting.

Another case in point is the stand-by generators installed about 15 years ago on the Churchill-Roosevelt east-west corridor, which have never worked.

After a power failure caused traffic chaos on the CR Highway when the traffic lights stopped functioning, someone with little practical experience decided to install stand-by generators as a solution to power outages.

From Morvant heading east, motorists can count about ten or more idle generators rusting away in steel cages at traffic light intersections and which have never worked.

Someone with authority to spend millions on those generators seemed unaware that generators need servicing at six-eight week intervals, if they are to function when required. Generators have batteries to start the engine when power fails, but if not maintained, battery power runs low — which is why we intermittently tumble the engine of an idle car.

I propose that all the generators be sold off to recover some money; they are idle and useless and can be deemed brand new except for some rust.

But the underlying administrative problem must be resolved by the politicians. Getting re-elected every five years must not be their sole focus.

MICHAEL JAY WILLIAMS
via e-mail