Different strokes

By Bukka Rennie
June 25, 2003

Recently the Government was asked by the opposition to furnish Parliament with information relevant to the "areas of responsibility" and "terms and conditions" of employment of a project management consultant at the Ministry of Education.

The response from Education Minister Hazel Manning indicated that in 2002 the Cabinet accepted the proposal of the ministry to advance its programme of repair and refurbishing of primary and secondary schools.

Crucial to this programme was the requirement of proper project management services. According to the Minister, the Government entered into contract with NIPDEC for the provision of said project management services.

In fact the Ministry of Education found its internal structure in 2002 woefully deficient in regard to "project management capability" and therefore sought NIPDEC's recommendation for consulting services to work directly with the ministry to monitor its school construction and repair programme while simultaneously developing in-house its own project managing and monitoring capability.

The terms of reference for the consultancy stated in part that the consultant had to be capable of doing "diagnostic reviews", "capabilities analyses" and evaluations and rationalisations of all technical operations being handled by the Education Project Co-ordinating Unit, that holds the responsibility to design and construct primary schools in accordance with the conditions of World Bank financing, and the Secondary Education Modernisation Programme Co-ordinating Unit that manages secondary school development under the aegis of the IDB.

In addition, the consultant had to develop an immediate action plan for the projects earmarked for completion in 2002, as well as those in 2002/2003. Quite understandably, given what has become universal in the modern world, the said consultant had to recommend "information systems technology" be implemented particularly in regard to generating timelines, up to date reporting, budgeting and the managing of project costs.

To fulfil these tasks NIPDEC procured through its usual tendering procedures Global Competitive Strategies Ltd, headed by a Kenrick Burgess.

Mr Burgess' qualifications were listed by the Minister: Master's in Business Administration (MBA) with distinction; Master of Arts (MA) specialising in counselling and education; post graduate diplomas in construction engineering, public administration and management; Bachelor of Science (BSc Honours) in civil engineering.

For a period of seven months, July to December 2002, the Minister indicated that Global Competitive Strategies was paid a fee of $636,116.75 which worked out to be an average monthly fee of $90,873.82.

Needless to say, that monthly figure was sensationalised by the print media as salary of one individual. None of the press seem interested in what was accomplished by Global although the Minister listed the achievements in part as follows:

Preparation of physical works master plan for 2002; co-ordination of the entire 2002-2003 school vacation repair of 146 schools; workshops on project preparation, planning and management for staff of the Ministry of Education; preparation of integrated plans for the Secondary Education Modernisation Programme showing the performance of each component; restructuring of the Educational Facilities Management Unit (EFMU); a master procurement plan; a risk analysis plan; a master project planning, information and tracking plan; a procedures manual for managing petty and minor works contracts; a draft maintenance manual for principals of primary and secondary schools; draft terms of reference for managing denominational school board projects; site evaluation checklists and terms of reference under which Early Childhood Centres could be "designed, tendered and constructed", etc

It is indeed a strange country that would seem not interested in their own citizenry developing the kind of expertise that for decades foreigners provided at exorbitant and exploitative fees, which made their so-called grants pale in significance.

The ongoing relationship between the epi-centres and peripheral areas of the world is based precisely on the possession of knowledge and information used as political weapons and modes of intervention and control.

The major task of any developmental strategy on our part is to break that dependence. Therefore when locals, moreso grassroot black boys and girls, prove able, in any small part, to contribute towards such a breakaway, they should be applauded rather than be victimised.

What is even more appalling is that none of the print nor audio-visual media carried the Minister's comparison between what existed before and since the intervention of Global.

The Minister indicated that during the term of the last government, Watson Construction Management Services, was engaged in 2002 and for a similar seven-month period was paid fees of $1,785,288.75 or an average of $255,041.25 a month for providing only project management services in the area of construction, which the Minister indicated is "…a small component of the overall construction programme of the Ministry of Education".

In fact, the Minister went on to point out that the same company was hired to provide consultancy services in 2001 during the term of office of the last government to advise on the construction of 12 secondary schools and over a period of four months was paid a fee of $2 million although there were no tendering procedures, no official awarding of a contract and no approval from the MTS Board responsible for such decisions.

And to add insult to national injury, WG Watson, managing director of Watson Construction Management Services, has the great honour, in the eyes of the last regime and certain officers of the MTS, of holding the most appropriate qualifications of "three O'Level subjects".

Is it a question of different strokes for different folk? And many may say that academic qualifications and certification are not significant if the candidate being considered has the experience.

That may indeed be so but when we look at the reality of the Government of T&T and the IDB agreeing in July 1999 to construct 22 new schools at the cost of $268 million and that this very programme in regard to projected cost rose from $268 million to $663 million by 2000-2001, an increase of some 147 per cent, we are left no choice but to examine the "horns" of those who have come aboard supposedly to advise and to manage.

This country will go nowhere unless rules and regulations are applied across the board and it is understood that no one is above the law.

The rules and regulations of the tendering process are quite apt and there are accounting officers throughout the Public Service quite capable of enforcing them.

But it is when politicians come to interfere, most times on the pretext of "fast-tracking", to quote Humphrey, that all hell breaks loose and the country as a whole is made poorer for it. It is time to call a halt to this madness.