The Public Works Ministry is inviting the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers (GAPE) to review the recent termination of the contract of Falcon Transportation and Construction Services (FTCS) for the East Coast Demerara (ECD) four-lane extension project.
This was announced by Transport Minister Robeson Benn at a press conference today at his Wight’s Lane, Kingston office, where he tried to explain why the contractor continued to be utilised despite concerns about its track record. He also challenged allegations of corruption by the Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara-based contracting firm against public officers involved in the project.
As a result of the situation, Benn said that setting up of a committee to examine the performance of contractors to determine when or whether they should be blacklisted from government contracts is also being considered. President Donald Ramotar had recently hinted at this possibility at a recent procurement seminar.
The ministry had announced that the contract of FTCS was terminated for non-performance and for falsifying results of compressive strength tests, among other transgressions. The ministry also accused the company of concocting allegations of corruption against public officers. Company officials have previously denied requests by this newspaper to address the issue and attempts yesterday to reach the company for a comment were futile.
When asked why the contract was not terminated earlier given the contractor’s record, Benn said yesterday that there were concerns all along by the engineers supervising the works. He said that he personally visited the site in April this year and he endorsed the concerns of the engineers. As a result, he spoke to the contractor, who assured that the identified shortcomings will be addressed. However, the contractor did not fulfil his promise, he said.
“My sense of it shortly thereafter is that we should finish it… we had to go through some procedures,” he explained, while adding that there were also alterations to the design of the works but he noted that this did not have any bearing on the works being undertaken.
“There was no problem until we cancelled the contract… it appears this ministry (Public Works) is being damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t,” he said, while announcing that the ministry will invite GAPE to pronounce on the issue, including the legal and professional aspects of the contract.
