Radish Domingo went to work on Wednesday evening to finish a roof. He did not come home. The two-storey concrete structure he was standing on collapsed beneath him at Atlantic Gardens, pinning him under rubble until emergency crews could pull him free. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation. Seven of his colleagues were taken away on stretchers.

And now, as happens every time a building falls or a scaffold gives way in this country, the investigations begin. CCTV footage will be reviewed. Statements will be taken. A post-mortem will be conducted. Authorities will speak of preliminary findings.

Reactive. Always reactive.

The question that should haunt every official connected to construction oversight in Guyana is a simple one: who inspected that site before Wednesday evening? Who signed off on the structural design? Who verified that the materials met standard? Who checked, at any point during the construction of a two-storey concrete building, that the workers standing on that roof would be safe?

Guyana has building codes. It has a Central Housing and Planning Authority. It has municipal authorities with mandates that include construction oversight. What it appears to lack, with tragic regularity, is a culture of enforcement before the collapse, not after it.

This is not a new problem. Workers have died on construction sites across this country with uncomfortable frequency. Each time, the story follows the same script. Emergency response. Hospital. Funeral home. Investigation. Then silence, until the next one.

A functioning inspection regime does not wait for rubble. It visits active sites. It demands permits before foundations are poured. It checks load-bearing calculations before a roof is poured. It issues stop-work orders when conditions are unsafe. It holds contractors and developers legally accountable when they cut corners on the structures that workers and eventually residents will occupy.

None of that is complicated. It is standard practice in every country that has decided worker lives are worth protecting before tragedy strikes.

Guyana is collecting billions in oil revenue. It is hosting foreign investors, celebrating mineral reserves, and projecting itself as a rising economy. A rising economy does not allow its carpenters to be buried under concrete because no one thought to check if the building was sound.

Radish Domingo was 46 years old. He had a home in Mon Repos and a day of work ahead of him.

The least this country owes him, and every worker who will report to a construction site tomorrow, is a serious answer to a serious question: why is proactive inspection still not standard practice in Guyana, and who is accountable for ensuring it becomes one?

SOURCE: Credible Sources, “Carpenter dies, seven injured after structure collapses at Atlantic Gardens construction site,” April 16, 2026