By Marvin Cato | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA – A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, Juretha Fernandes, has launched a blistering attack on the PPP/C administration, citing the collapse of the $285 million contract for the Kato Secondary School dormitory as a textbook example of gross incompetence and rampant corruption.
Fernandes’ remarks come on the heels of a new invitation for bids published by the Region Eight Administration, which estimates that completing the stalled hinterland dormitory will cost taxpayers an additional $120,730,286.
In an exclusive interview with Nightly News, MP Fernandes pointed out serious contradictions between official ministerial statements made in the National Assembly and the cold, hard facts revealed in the newly released Auditor General’s report.
She recalled that the progress of the hinterland project had been questioned in Parliament on multiple occasions, with former Minister of Local Government and Regional Development, Sonia Parag, proving highly reluctant to provide structural specifications.
“The Minister actually quoted a figure when she was questioned in early 2024; she stated that the project was 65% completed,” Fernandes noted. “Now, to see in the Auditor General’s report that they cannot even provide a clear figure on actual progress because no proper measured work breakdown was attached to the payment vouchers is shocking. Where did the figure the Minister presented in Parliament emanate from?”
“They are just pulling numbers out of the sky and giving them to the people of this country,” the MP charged, questioning whether any data provided by state ministers during financial considerations can be trusted.
The project was originally awarded in September 2021 by Region Eight Regional Executive Officer Peter Ramotar to Reiaz Akbar General Construction Services. Intended to house 300 students to support the troubled $1 billion Kato Secondary School complex, the facility was slated for completion within three years.
Instead, the project has completely derailed. According to the Auditor General’s findings:
- The contractor was paid a staggering $249.995 million up to December 31, 2024, amounting to roughly 87% of the total contract sum.
- Physical site verifications conducted in July 2025 revealed that the contract had expired in 2023 with no extensions approved, and absolutely no work was ongoing.
- The site has been left in disrepair.
“There is no accountability by the government; they don’t wish to be accountable because they want to hide things like this,” Fernandes stressed. She noted that while the government recently made a grand public show of reshuffling and replacing Regional Executive Officers across all ten administrative zones, these officers ultimately operate under direct instructions from the top tier of the PPP/C administration.
Fernandes further lamented that the institutional mechanisms meant to protect taxpayers’ money are being systematically stalled. She pointed out that the 13th Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been moving at a snail’s pace, remaining bogged down in years-old reports while contemporary financial discrepancies pile up without oversight.
“We have to ask for these matters to be taken seriously by members of the public,” Fernandes urged. “The entire system needs to be looked at and revamped, the contractors, and especially the engineers who are signing off on these works to disburse cash when the place is a mess.”
The Audit Office has formally recommended that the Head of the Budget Agency execute a strict valuation of the standing structure to determine the most viable path forward. Meanwhile, the new bids for the completion phase are scheduled to be opened on May 20, 2026, at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), leaving more than 300 hinterland students to bear the brunt of the procurement failure.
