If you are good enough, bid in other regions instead

Former Member of Parliament (MP), Audwin Rutherford continues to raise his voice, urging
Regional Councillors to enhance their ethics and professionalism as they serve the people of the
regions.
The former MP who recently resigned from the AFC, a party that he helped to form the
government with APNU in 2015 has supported a call for Regional Councillors to be barred from
receiving contracts from the region that they sit upon. He had said that such an arrangement was
a clear case of conflict of interest and should be investigated immediately.
He stated that while there have been instances where Contractors have become Regional
Councillors, he continues to see several Regional Councillors becoming Contractors, thus
leaving many unanswered questions.
In an invited comment, Rutherford had said that a good analysis will state that Regional
Councillors who are contractors over a period of ten years can be good enough. He said that he
firmly believes ten years. This, he argued, would cover his tenure of 2011 to 2015 under
Regional Chairman Sharma Solomon and 2015-2020 under Rennis Morian.
Rutherford noted that despite only serving as a Regional Chairman from 2011 to 2015, he has
seen quite a lot as both Regional Councilllor and MP taking place in Region Ten. This, he
stressed, will depict what he said usually takes place in the Council.
“In some cases, it looks to me like a dividing up issue and I have heard many remarks about
Regional Councillors pointedly want to use their authority to secure contracts. As such, it is my
firm view that Regional Councillors should not be given contracts in the region that they sit as
Regional Councillors,” he reiterated.
The Former Region Ten MP declared that allowing Regional Councillors to secure contracts
from the Region would encourage them to abandon their duties of representing the people who
elected them to represent their interests.
“If you are good enough then you can bid in other regions and get contracts there, but if you are
a contractor do you think that it is fair to be fighting the very people you should be representing
for contracts,” the former MP said.
Rutherford stressed that he has committed himself to becoming a watchdog for the residents of
Region Ten. He admitted that more needs to be done for them. He expressed an invitation to
others to come on board with him to monitor the conduct and performance of those that have
been elected to serve. He declared that he is prepared to call out those who he finds to be abusing
and or misusing their authority, adding that they were elected to serve and not to enrich
themselves.

“Most times when you see the contracts one can only see that it was favoured to them. They are
not by nature contractors most of them we would have noticed over the past few years some poor
works being done by Regional Councillors, who are now contractors. Some tell themselves that
they might soon build a titanic,” he passionately said.