Dear Editor,
To compliment your excellent editorial of August 16 on the bungled Supenaam Stelling, I would like to add a caveat on the serious errors of judgement which have been made by the Govern-ment of Guyana (GoG) through its Ministries of Works and Housing.
This project had its contract drawings and specifications approved before construction started by the GoG. Its construction was carried out by a GoG approved contractor and supervision of construction was carried out by GoG approved inspectors.
After construction was completed the project was inspected and signed off as having been satisfactorily completed by GoG appointed personnel. Unfortunately, shortly after completion, structural deficiencies and/or poor construction manifested themselves which made the stelling inoperable. As a result of public outrage and to make the stelling functional in the shortest possible time, GoG proceeded to carry out remedial works using taxpayers’ money with the intention to ask the searching questions as to what went wrong and who should be culpable later.
That time has now arrived, and GoG may be in for a rude awakening. Shortly after the defects were observed and while the project was still under warranty, GoG should have so informed the contractor/design engineer and instructed them to take corrective action. If they had ‘stone-walled’ or failed to carry out the necessary remedial works in a timely manner, then GoG was obliged to put them on notice and proceed to do the remedial works with its own team and recoup the costs through the usual channel from the contractor/design engineer later if culpability was established. However, after the outcry, GoG proceeded with its own resources to remedy the defects as it envisaged them, laying blame left, right and centre in the process, and at the end of it all appointing two engineers to investigate the cause of the failure and advise on possible corrective action. The public is still awaiting their findings.
GoG has tampered with whatever evidence there was and has not allowed due process to take its course to establish culpability by the contractor/design engineer. It will be a field day for the lawyers. In its effort to disentangle the mess and seek redress, GoG may very well find that those who have indeed bungled the project are its own employees, who lack the skills and capability to execute such a complex project, and were willing to tell their bosses what they wanted to hear but not what they needed to hear. Hence their shield against any disciplinary action for incompetence.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
