Remember the unpaid bills

The Peoples Progressive Movement Government’s previous Minister for Roads in the last government Mr. Arden McLean built and boasted about the expensive roads that he had built. However did he tell the public that the PPM Government had not paid many of the land owners for the private land on which he built the roads? The UDP Government is now left to clean up another expensive debt, which the PPM Government left.

To worsen things, the PPM Government did not publish any annual AUDITED consolidated accounts during their full term and we understand that these contingent liabilities for land taken for roads (and the unfunded liabilities for pensions since 2005) were not in the PPM’s accounts otherwise the massive $81 million deficit left in 2009 may have been much larger!

The Compass headline on 22 March, 2012, “Payments missing in Government grabs of private property”, shows that some 20 claims for private land taken for the east/west arterial road together with further claims for other roads are outstanding. One contested case (on appeal) shows that the claimants received three times the money Government offered (a judgement of $343,000)plus $100,000 in legal and expert fees! The final judgement will be paid from the public’s money!

It is wrong for the PPM Minister or any other Minister to take peoples’ private land and not pay them for several years. Saying that the roads are needed is not good enough. Governments must respect private rights and pay its debts promptly.

For roads to be efficient they must be able to take traffic fully through to their destination. To build new super highway four lane roads, which feed into small two lane roads, does not significantly improve traffic. It would have been better to do reasonable improvements on existing roads through to their destination. Look at the backup of traffic in the morning from the east for the last several miles into George Town or the afternoon traffic to West Bay when six lanes are squeezed into two lanes.

It would have helped traffic more and been less costly if the money had been spent to improve the present roads and build less costly new roads.

All governments must live within their means. The last PPM Government is a sad example of failing to do so. In 2009 the PPM Government left a whopping $81 million deficit (when the law required them to have a surplus), and accumulated debts and contractual commitments for the $200 million to two new schools (which we understand can take the present but few future students) and the $100 million administration building, which apparently may only hold about one quarter of the total Government and statutory authorities staff ).

This shows the damage that a government can do in only one four-year term and why it is so important for the electorate to vote in legislators who will spend the public’s money wisely and who are willing to consult the public and accept their views on such large financial commitments. Legislators must abide by the law on fiscal responsibility and publish audited consolidated accounts (as always happened before the political parties time in government) and within nine months of the year end.

The repayment of the excessive debt and unpaid bills many of which the PPM Government left will continue to be a heavy burden for future generations and governments and should be in the voters’ minds at the next election.

John McLean

Truman Bodden