DISGRUNTLED landowners of Bellona road’s zone 1 are calling on the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) to clarify the fiasco facing the road rehabilitation and maintenance programme on east Bellona road.

They caution MID to heed their call and address the matter to prevent it escalating to the point whereby they will close of their sections of the road to further work.

Spokesman for the group, Mr John, says that since 2016, work on the east section of Bellona’s road has been a farce, with many suspecting foul-play by the contractor, which may be unbeknownst to the MID.

One of their claims is that they have only worked once on the road since 2016, with so far four quarters being wasted. Now the contractor is trying to rally the landowners again for another round of rehabilitation work for this year, 2017.

“We understand that there should be four quarters of rehabilitation work per year. However, in 2016, we only worked one quarter and the other three passed by without any.

“This year, 2017, the first quarter passed without anything. And now the contractor [name withheld] is calling for us to work on our sections of the road for this second quarter.

“We understand that the contractor receives funding from the Ministry to fund work for each quarter. So where are those funds for the lost quarters?”

Spokesperson Mr John defends their inquiry saying that those funds are meant to be income for rural dwellers such as himself and his fellow landowners in the work of rehabilitating and maintaining their road.

“The contractor is only a middleman who facilitates MID’s programmes of keeping the roads usable. Not to enrich himself through MID’s projects.”

The landowners also share with Island Sun that they also have outstanding payments yet to be paid them by the contractor for past work.

“The contractor owes us outstanding payment for past work, some partial some full. And he is again audacious enough to go around promising us that he will repay us in due course but that first we must work again.

“We have had enough of this endless false promises, and are calling on the MID to clarify whether the inconsistent road work is legal or not, and to deal with this problem. The MID should do so before we start blocking our sections of the road from further work.”

Regarding inspectors from the MID, the landowners say that they have seen so-called MID personnel arriving in Bellona to carry out so-called inspection.

But, they insist that despite the disarray surrounding the work on the eastern zone of Bellona road, they have not heard any action taken by the inspectors.

“We suspect that these MID inspectors are allied with the contractor in a network of some sort in which he is protected. Thus, despite the road work not going to expectations, MID will never act.”

Meanwhile, a senior official of MID confirms to Island Sun that there are pockets of networks within the ministry which are impregnable and serve the interests of their members.

“I sympathise with these complainants [landowners], but as it stands, their suspicions remain as they are, all speculations, and will be hard to prove … [they] are up against an assortment of networks as you guys have reported on previously … goodluck in proving their [landowners’] theories, but it is sad…”

The official however consoles LOs that the Ministry is actively removing such corrupt entities from within its corridors and encourages the frustrated landowners to approach the Ministry with their complaints and work together to rectify the matter.

“Going media won’t solve anything,” he maintains.