The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A South Andros businessman yesterday called for an accounting to determine how much taxpayer money has been wasted through the cancellation of a multi-million dollar road repair contract.

Julian Gibson, owner/operator of Eula Nixon Convenience Store and Last Stop gas station, told Tribune Business he is satisfied that his vocal opposition to the contractor assigned to repair the roads in South Andros has paid off.

“I heard the member of parliament (Leon Lundy) for this area mentioned it on a telecast, but I was waiting for it to be announced in a press conference where all of the news media would be there. So I’m waiting to see what other agencies run with this story, but for now it makes me feel good,” he added.

Mr Lundy, in a telecast on Monday, said the $8m roadworks contract assigned to KW Paving in summer 2021 prior to that year’s general election has been cancelled due to concerns over how the project has been handled.

Mr Gibson added: “But the Government needs to find out now, on behalf of the people, how much money was actually paid out to these contractors. The taxpayers have lost money on this. If it was up to me I would have cancelled that contract two months after they got the job.”

Mr Gibson, an outspoken critic of the work performed, alleged that the work was performed in a haphazard manner where certain sections of the road were repaired but others were not. As a result, completed sections were not linked to one another, with unfinished segments in between.

“You have to have a start point and an end point, not jumping from one settlement to another settlement,” he argued. There is only one road in South Andros and “everyone depends on it”, Mr Gibson added. “People have to drive over these roads. Businesses, places are waiting for people to patronise their business, and if the roads are bad, people turn back, not wanting to drive up to the establishment,” he said.

“Fishermen have to go back and forth on the road from home to the dock. This is not like in Nassau where you have more than one main street, you have a couple of streets that you can go on and, if one is blocked, you can go another way.

“There is only one road in Andros and, if that road is bad, then you are up the creek.” South Andros residents now hope another contractor will be hired by the Government to complete the project.