The government yesterday secured a default judgment of US$4.2M against specialty hospital contractor Surendra Engineering, after the Indian firm failed to enter an appearance in a suit brought against it for breach of contract and fraud.
It is unclear how the judgment will be enforced since Surendra no longer has a presence here.
In a statement on the default judgment, Attorney General Anil Nandlall noted that no one appeared for Surendra when the matter was called on Wednes-day and yesterday in the Commercial Court.
As a result, he said judgment was granted in favour of the government in the form of special damages amounting to US$4,285,440 (equivalent to G$899,942,440) with interest, as well as costs amounting to US$10,714.50 (equivalent to G$2,250,043).
The government filed the lawsuit last October after accusing the firm of fraud. It was a major embarrassment for the PPP/C administration, which had used Surendra for several major contracts, including the troubled Enmore packaging plant, and had been accused of favouring it in the US$18M Specialty Hospi-tal contract.
In the court action, the government contended that Surendra failed to perform its obligations under the terms of the contract and to account for the advance payment of US$4,285,440 or to renew or provide the advance payment guarantee and the performance bond in keeping with the contract. “Instead, the defendant submitted fabricated, unsigned and sometimes inflated invoices with no evidence of actual payments made or to support the expenditure claimed,” Nandlall had said in the statement of claim for the action.
According to the action, Surendra failed to complete works as specified in its contract, account for monies given for mobilisation of works and provide the renewal of its payment guarantee.
Nandlall said the company failed to design and complete the architecture drawings and building plans for which it received payments as well as to do mobilisation, site establishment and supply civil engineering materials, among other things.
In addition to the contractual breach, government accused the company of engaging in corrupt or fraudulent practices by attempting to obtain an advance payment and performance bond guarantee with Worldwide Bankers of Trinidad and Tobago, a company not registered as an insurer in that country.
Nandlall said Surendra submitted a letter, dated January 13, 2012, purportedly signed by a D Singh, Director of Financial Institutions of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago and purporting to confirm that Worldwide Bankers had more than five years in the reinsurance and coinsurance business and was authorised for those operations since 1998. However, inquiries by government revealed that there was no Mr. Singh employed in the bank in any such capacity and the letter did not originate from the bank.
Surendra’s Managing Director Brijen Parikh had previously rejected government’s allegations of fraud as baseless. The company also accused the Donald Ramotar administration of seeking to back out of its commitments to the specialty hospital project and being responsible for the stoppage of work.
