Cheap building culture

THE EDITOR: It was just a few weeks ago I lamented the unsatisfactory state of repairs, to the tune of $10 million, at St George's College, and I also said I was waiting for a "Red House," ie, a leaking ceiling.

Well, it didn't make a month and, hey presto, flooding, as a midday shower looks like a typhoon in Indonesia in the halls. What an inexcusable shame, incompetence, faulty work.

There is not a single project undertaken by the Government which does not have a remedial issue.

It was just recently that "pipe buss" in the Health Ministry and torrents of rain flooded the foyer.

Chaguanas star Richie Sookhai and Rohan Sinanan will build a road to slam into a flyover pillar, they will build a bridge that will collapse, they will fix a creek that will crack and crumble, but they cannot fix Biljah Road.

Has anyone done anything to restore connectivity to the residents affected by the collapse of the Godineau River bridge? The technical advice is to replace the bridge. They will undertake million-dollar projects and boast how they saved money and how the UNC tried to "tief" and bid-rig.

But when you look at the degenerate condition of the Education Ministry towers, look at the terrible shape of the waterfront as compared to the Central Bank towers, or recognise that NAPA has had so many problems with old equipment (loose panes and leaks as well), you know how they are about shortcuts. They indulge in a cheap building culture like in India.

They have demolished apartments all over the country and have to pay the contractor. Thousands of apartments built by Patrick Manning in Debe are slipping and sliding, and people are just fed up in Cashew Gardens.

It's tiresome how they waste taxpayers' money on C-class work. And now they have an extra poverty tax penny to squander. God help us.

LINDA CAPILDEO

via e-mail