Tanza Sheckle shines in the SLED darkness

A SOLITARY project was successfully completed under the Sustainable Livelihood and
Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) programme in Upper Demerara – Berbice (Region Ten)
according to official documents seen by www.aroundtheregions.com.
Tanza Sheckle’s beauty parlour in Canvas City, Wismar, stands out among the massive letdown
in the multi-million-dollar scheme funded by the David Granger administration ostensibly to
help lift thousands living in poverty in the resource-rich area.
Sheckle’s project was listed at $1,119,766.00 covering construction and furnishing of the beauty
salon and even though figures show she didn’t uplift the full some, the enterprising woman had
the structure completed, electrical fixtures installed and the building painted.
Labour Minister Joseph Hamilton recently visited Linden, the capital town in Region Ten to get
a firsthand look at the multi-million-dollar project and left outraged to learn that Sheckle’s
undertaken was the only one that fructified.
The Minister was happy to learn that Sheckle’s salon was “doing well,” according to a well-
placed source.
A document on SLED, ‘Status Report’ detailed a slew of sputtering schemes which outraged
Minister Hamilton because significant sums were collected which output couldn’t match. For
example, administrators of the Green Jaguar Environmental & Community Development Co-op
collected the full sum for $5.7M project which to date remains incomplete.
‘Status Report’ said despite all the funding handed over (the) doors need to be stronger and there
was no drainage system built for the wastewater to runoff. It said the beams need to have some
reinforcement for support counselling that concrete should have been used instead of wood.
There was also no evidence of pigs ever being reared there.

The SLED document lists opposition legislator Mr. Jermaine Figueira as submitting official
documents for financial backing for the pig rearing farm. But the MP took to social media
blasting the government Minister for peddling public mischief.
“I take this opportunity to publicly state and make it absolutely clear, that I Jermaine Figueira,
Member of Parliament for Region Ten, has never been the recipient of any disbursement of
monies from the Sustainable Livelihood and Entrepreneurial Development (SLED) programme
in 2019 or any other year for that matter,” he said in the Facebook post.
Figueira demanded Minister Hamilton withdraw the “character assassination” and the “malicious
article” that was published. The APNU+AFC also demanded an apology prominently placed in
the four daily newspapers and promised litigation against Hamilton and the media entities which
published the damaging statements.

Unfinished projects include the $3.4M West Watooka’s Pavilion/Community Centre &
Information Technology Hub Self Help; the $2.2M construction of Chicken Pens in West
Watooka; another pen for chicken rearing and plucking in Amelia’s Ward valued at $2.2M.
There is no evidence that any chickens were ever plucked from this project the report said.
It said the visionaries behind the construction of a Block Making Facility by the Siberia/Old
England Community Development Council collected the full sum of $2.9M for the completed
scheme but took aim at the sub-standard output by the contractor.
The building for the $3.5M Block Making Facility in the Coomacka Mines is finished but the
electrical works are still due although the full sum was collected. The Play Parks for Youth in
Wismar Housing Scheme & One Mile Extension Communities received $360,000 each for their
$1.6M projects. The report noted that while the play equipment was erected one was broken and
the half inch steel needed to be used as part of the project instead of the quarter inch used by the
builder.
Construction of a $4.3M Piggery from Linden Agriculture and Forestry Economic Advancement
Coop Society is under way by contractor Mr. Henson Wilson who only received an interim
payment.

Mr. Lawrence Simon, Coordinator and contractor spearheading the Enhancement to a Basketball
Hard Court by the Think Green Organisation was described as recalcitrant in the ‘Status Report’.
Although he received $2,031,666.00 of the $4M scheme, works executed were estimated far
below interim payments received.
Simon has failed to adhere to strict timelines or make corrections to works done, the
document complained.