Creating opportunities for ourselves

THE EDITOR, Sir:

THE CRITICISM of the implementation process surrounding the Highway 2000 Project would be laughable were it not so tragic.

Gone are the days when professionals sit around to wait and see what is coming up in the budget. Why should anyone conceptualise and originate a project, give it his or her best intellectual shot, key test it and massage it around while trying his/her best to keep it confidential then call in some people who have not invested a single moment to possibly defeat the idea even before the 'eggs are fertilised'.

For too long architects, engineers and contractors have lived off the public purse in Jamaica through the old system which is: sign a contract, effect careless management, 'live high on the hog' during the life of the project, create enormous cost overruns, invoke the relevant clause and then collect pay for their inefficiency and sometimes downright dishonesty.

In the end the Government of the day takes the blame. The Minister in particular is branded as inefficient and corrupt and the old PWD and/or Ministry stands like a tree bereft of fruit until the next budget season.

The world has changed tremendously. Architects now market their skills globally so they are on the road physically and personally looking for work. They come to the table now with projects already conceptualised and the financing in place. Only the dynamic and creative professional will survive the coming years.

The Highway 2000 project should have come originally from the architects and related professionals but they sat around waiting for the government while Barbados, Malaysia and Hungary built highways which have proven to be great successes.

I would like to see Jamaican professionals becoming proactive thereby creating new opportunities for themselves.

I am, etc.,

OSWALD SEYMOUR

P.O. Box 837

Kingston 8

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