Dear Editor,
Mr Kwayana in his letter to your newspaper dated December 21, 2011 (‘Capacity, contracts and secrecy’) seized upon one word “capacity” in a press release from the EU Delegation to attack me and my company, BK International Inc. This is not the first time he has done so and since he has little work to do in the USA, where he resides, he will probably do it again.
He harbours a permanent and pathological dislike for myself and my business, and so it is difficult for him to pass up an opportunity to attack, even opportunistically dredging up a matter he complained about unsuccessfully to the Ombudsman 19 years ago. But he still dredges it up in a muckraking style to reinforce attempts to poison people’s minds about my business.
The fact of the matter is that I, together with others, have built up a large business starting from humble beginnings and have taken the risk and put in the hard work necessary to make it successful. It is also true that I am a supporter of the present ruling party and was so even before I entered business. That is my constitutional right and I make no apologies for this. But I wish to state categorically that I have never won a contract where my prices were above those of other bidders, and BK International has also never requested variations for any of its contracts.
Every contract that BK International has won has always been on the basis of the lowest price and best capacity. This is a matter of record.
I also still have to fight to get contracts and to compete with other contractors and nothing is given to me on a platter.
Mr Kwayana who has a long memory would know that during the PNC regime (I think he served the PNC after the PPP, before going to the WPA) there was only one contractor for legal work – Clark and Martin; one for auditing – Stoll/Thomas; while for construction and engineering, consultancy there was George Henry & Associates, Torrington & Torrington Ltd and CA Libud & Associates. I have not read any long letters from him about the above. But things have changed and now you have to compete and you have to have capacity. And when it comes to capacity BK International Inc has a lot of it, more than any other contractor in this country and even more than the foreign contractors who want to come here and work. We have more plant and equipment that any other local competitor and have also created more new employment, both skilled and unskilled, than any other local company since we came into existence.
We invested heavily in the quarry business to ensure that stone is supplied at reduced rates when others failed, and we made considerable investments in shipping, tugs and barges. We have invested more than US$10,000,000 in the quarry business and at the same time reduced prices by 50%, from $12,000 per ton to $6,000 per ton for stone. To develop capacity, one needs to have vision and to invest. We have done that because we have confidence in this country.
We do not wish to be boastful and blow our own trumpet, but those are the facts plain and simple. We also have a track record of successfully completing many projects. But it has become fashionable for retired and armchair politicians and commentators to attack us. Does Mr Kwayana know that this company was charged $20,000,000 liquidated damages by the Minister of Works for being one week late with the 8th EDF Sea Defence works?
We are not going to be the whipping boy of the disgruntled and we will defend ourselves and our company. In conclusion, I wish to state that if anyone has real evidence of wrongdoing then they should bring it forward. We will answer them.
We have already sent off a very short and preliminary response to the EU’s comments and we will have more to say in the days ahead.
Yours faithfully,
Brian Tiwarie
Managing Director
BK International Inc
