Cordel Hyde Rails Against Proposed Use of Taiwanese Loan

Cordel Hyde

Vocal in his objection to how these monies will be spent, in the absence of a contractor general, is Lake-I area rep Cordel Hyde.  Not only is he apprehensive that there may not be proper accountability for the expenditure of these monies, Hyde also says that it will serve to expose the so-called fraud that happened with the paving of Faber’s Road under the current administration.

Cordel Hyde, Area Representative, Lake Independence

“On the matter of this loan motion, today the government has tabled, or will table when it‘s all said and done, four loan motions for a hundred and sixty-eight million dollars, twenty million of that, well they deferred the Education Loan Motion, so it‘s going to be a hundred and forty-eight million.  And out of that hundred and forty-eight million, out of that hundred and forty-eight million, a hundred million is for a road.  Twenty-eight million is for strengthening the tax department, that would have been more than the education loan, ah just seh dat right soh, that‘s not my bone of contention today.  Because I know the people in Sarteneja, I know that the people of Sarteneja and the surrounding communities are happy that they are going to get this upgrade of forty-seven miles.  The area representative from Corozal Southeast is also happy, we‘ll get this upgrade of forty-seven miles and two bridges to replace ferries.  But I want to say two things Madam Speaker, two thing.  One, we on this side of the house have serious concerns that a hundred million dollars is going to be entrusted to the Ministry of Works.  A hundred million dollars when we don‘t have a contractor general.  We have not had a contractor general for over a year, probably eighteen months.  Noh tell me bout IDB man, da human beings deh da IDB, da human beings deh dah dehn multilaterals, things happen.  Once yoh da human beings things could happen, bad things could happen, right.  So hundred million dollars with the Ministry of Works and we‘ve heard all kinds of sordid stories from the Ministry of Works as it relates to these contracts but we are going to entrust the men at the Ministry of Works with a hundred million dollars.  Now, this hundred million dollars is going to pave, I assume, forty-seven miles of road and we’ll get two bridges.  I hope it’s paved because that would sat that they paid probably a little over a million dollars per mile of road.  What does Madam Speaker is that it exposes the massive fraud that took place with at Faber’s Road.”