Regional Chairman accuses government of strangling Linden

Region Ten Chairman Deron Adams is outraged by the Irfaan Ali administration’s continued suffocating
policies towards the bauxite-mining community.
Adams is demanding the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) government “take its knees off the neck of the
people of Region Ten,” which voted overwhelmingly for the main opposition A Partnership for National
Unity Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) coalition in last year’s polls.
“They have deviated from a plan of development to pressuring…the people in Region Ten, doing things
in a discriminatory manner,” Adams said.
The regional chairman said the government’s resumption of its hard-line policies involving spite and
victimisation since it recaptured the seat of government in 2020 will invite confrontation from residents,
which is what he suspects the administration wants.

From August last year, the government has so far dismissed some 100 workers. Adams calculated the
impoverished bauxite-mining city of Linden will lose approximately over $100M by the next elections in
2025.
“They have dismissed the ambulance brigade staff; they attempted to closed down the PCA (patient care
assistants) here in the region. They have been firing from cleaners to weeders you name it, not renewing
contracts,” Adams complained.
In addition to dismissals of workers, the Regional Chairman said some 70 percent of the contracts for jobs
in the region are being awarded to outsiders.
“Several of these contracts going to people from out of the region and when the people can’t execute the
contract, you have the Minister of Local Government and others coming in and pleading with them,” he
observed.
“This government continues to target Region Ten simply because this Region voted overwhelming for the
Coalition,” he surmised.
The APNU+AFC coalition invested $150M to support the development of small businesses through the
Linden Enterprise Network (LEN).
But since the PPP returned to power “they have fired the Board and have not put any system in
place for a plan of transition to have its continuity,” Adams said.