Chair of the National Lotteries Authority Murray Bullock has decried the lack of maintenance of major project on the windward side of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
He made the point Thursday at the commissioning of a new school bus for North Windward, and urged that the EC$250,000 vehicle not be allowed to fall into disrepair.
Bullock urged Hudson Nedd, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport, which has administrative responsibility for the bus, to ensure that regular preventative maintenance is done on the vehicle.
“On my way driving up here, I’ve seen many major projects that are seriously lacking in preventative maintenance and we need to address these things,” Bullock said.
“If you go into the bush and you get pricked by a thorn … if you don’t attend to it immediately, it might fester and become a very serious wound. Preventative maintenance is vitally essential. It is as essential as putting oil and gas in it,” Bullock said.
Read also: 16 reasons to avoid North Windward, St. Vincent
Among the many projects that needing preventative maintenance that Bullock might have noticed during his drive to North Windward is the Rabacca Bridge, where the steel rail are no longer standing as a result of corrosion.
The rails of many other bridges in North Windward a severely corroded, seemingly the result of a combination of the use of inappropriate construction material in light of the environmental conditions, and poor maintenance.
Murray challenged Coreas Hazells Inc. to “adopt this bus and ensure that it is maintained in a most immaculate condition”.
The 30-seater bus was purchased using an EC$100,000 donation from the Mustique Charitable Trust, EC$50,000 from PetroCaribe, and EC$50,000 from the National Lotteries Authority.
The dealer, Coreas Hazells Inc., gave an EC$15,000 discount, and the government paid for the licence and insurance.
Be careful what you say Murray, don’t say anything that will embarrass the Government, you may just end up like all your relatives at Argyle, disenfranchised. I don’t think you had a problem being paid for your land, but the rest of the family have.
Why not speak out for all those 150 people who had their land taken from them up to 7 years ago, still not paid, can’t get paid.
Nothing the government builds or is otherwise responsible for is properly maintained in SVG — not the bridges, not the roads, not the streets, not the rivers, not the airports, not the beaches, not the buildings, and surely not the tourist sites.
And we aspire to be a world-class tourist destination.
Bullock should take a tour to the Leeward side of the island.