Dear Editor,
Charles Sohan in his SN letter of September 29 seeks to challenge Minister Harmon’s statement on the problem of construction cost of the Kato Primary School Region 8, which contract was originally awarded to the contractor in 2013 for $780M but which has already cost approximately $1B with no end in sight.
Minister Harmon expressed the opinion that some contractors were deliberately under bidding government contracts to win then only to return later with lame excuses for contract cost increases. This causes bona fide contractors to lose out on government contracts. This practice that Mr Harmon is talking about is well known among the contractors and it is a fact that many of them engage in it and so far have been getting away with it.
Clearly, Minister Harmon is of the opinion that this is what is taking place in the case of the Kato school contract. Mr Sohan in challenging Mr Harmon focuses on the problem of poor design which he blames for the variations during construction and it is this that is mainly responsible for severe cost overruns. But Mr Sohan contradicts himself by contending that a keen contractor will see the opportunity for this in the bidding document and “therefore they low bid on listed items and jack up the cost for change orders” and at the end of the contract all of this is “design-ed to generate a profit.” This is exactly what Mr Harmon is contending.
It is time that in many instances, there are change orders but for the change orders to force project costs to move from $780M to $1B and counting, obviously raises red flags. There is something definitely wrong when these change orders already create a 30% increase in project costs and at the present rate of increase the final costs are likely to be mind boggling.
The fact of the matter is that this contract was first awarded at $690M but at signing it mysteriously increased by $40M. This was a sign of things to come. Mr Sohan wishes to close his eyes to the basic reality that in many cases under the previous administration, the environment was corrupt, which is the principal cause of the problem.
It is well known that politicians and officials, contractors and consult-ing supervising personnel often collude and conspire in these areas for self-enrichment.
The question of poor design has very little to do with it. Rather, as Mr Sohan himself explains, it is the contractor and others taking advantage supposedly of opportunities to jack up the cost and to exploit the taxpaying public.
Very often, contractors who do not possess the requisite equipment, finicial and human resources are awarded contracts which they are unable to fulfil.
There have been numerous reports in the press of shoddy work in virtually all the regions and the building at the Radio Demerara site which are total disasters. They cost the taxpayers a lot of money and give the government and legitimate contractors a bad name. It is also true that the same bad contractors and so called supervising consultants keep appearing and reappearing with regular frequency in many of the projects.
Something needs to be done urgently to put an end to this and it is a good thing that Minister Harmon is aware of the problem.
If anyone in the present government can do something to rectify this lawlessness, it is Minister Harmon. The so-called consulting companies have to be straightened out in short order and be made to understand that a new government is in place that will no longer tolerate skullduggery.
The government may wish to consider the establishment of the Office of the Inspector General for public works, bolstered by a strengthened inspection and monitoring of public infrastructure reinforced by an Auditor General charged with value for money auditing of the public works contractors. Mr Sohan‘s idea that the Ministry of Education should create a school construction division makes no sense. The Ministry of Education is in the business of education. Engineers and auditors have to do engineering, inspection, monitoring and auditing of the projects to make sure that the taxpayers are getting value for their money. Politicians, officials, contractors and so called consultants who collude and conspire to rip off the public and unjustly enrich themselves must also be exposed, blacklisted and forced to feel the full effects of the anti-corruption drive. The problem is not poor design but poor management of the greedy and corrupt.
Mr Harmon is right.
Yours faithfully,
Lindon Stephney
