Former President Bharrat Jagdeo has urged a review of the contract awarded to China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) Limited to rebuild the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri according to a report by the state-owned NCN.
His statement came in light of the disclosure by Jamaica’s Office of the Contractor General (OCG) earlier this week that CHEC’s parent company, China Communications Construc-tion Company (CCCC) and, by extension, CHEC have been blacklisted, since January 2009 by the World Bank, under the Bank’s ‘Fraud and Corruption Sanc-tioning Policy.’ Jamaica’s OCG had raised concerns about projects CHEC is undertaking in Jamaica.
NCN, in a report on its website, reported Jagdeo as saying that Guyana should not dismiss the World Bank’s position lightly. The report said that Jagdeo is “urging” President Donald Ramotar to seek explanations from the Chinese government about the conduct of CHEC since the company is state owned. Jagdeo is also “urging that President Ramotar review the CJIA contract to ascertain whether Guyana will be getting value for money and if there is any illegality in the project,” the report said.
According to the report, Jagdeo said that on the basis of the explanations given, Ramotar should make a decision on the project’s feasibility. He also stressed that it is important that the new CJIA gets built since its expansion is important to Guyana’s development, NCN reported. The report added that the former president said that it is in this context, that it is important too, that Guyana secures the Chinese soft loan for the project.
Jagdeo’s statement as reported by NCN is at odds with his government’s role in this deal. It was Jagdeo’s government which hastily signed the deal with CHEC last year prior to the November 28 general elections. Observers will therefore question why his government had not done adequate due diligence on CHEC and evaluated whether or not the project will deliver value for money,
The World Bank debarred CCCC from being eligible to bid on road and bridge projects funded by the bank for the period 2009-2017. However, the company said the issue raised by the office of the contractor general in Jamaica was inherited by the CCCC, when it took over the China Road and Bridge Corporation in 2005. Cabinet has approved a US$138M design and construction contract with CHEC for the CJIA. The project includes an extension of the runway to a total of 10,800 feet to accommodate large transatlantic aircraft, along with construction of a new terminal building, acquisition of eight boarding bridges, and installation of other state-of-the-art equipment.
Firm position
Meanwhile, the opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) yesterday said that it has not taken a “firm position” in light of the disclosure on CCCC and said it prefers to have all the information surrounding the issue before coming to a decision. Responding to questions during a press conference, attorney-at-law Joe Harmon pointed out that even though APNU had voted in favour of the contract, at that stage they were not given all of the details that are now emerging.
“We would prefer to have all of the information before we actually call for the contractor to be disbarred. You have two sides that are actually emerging now. There are some concerns of being debarred [and] there are some concerns about the contractor saying we were never debarred…and that our parent company may have had an issue but we don’t have an issue,” Harmon said.
AFC chairman Khemraj Ramjattan has called for the immediate termination of the contract because of the debarment.
The company has said that it inherited the World Bank blacklisting when it took over a company in 2005 that had been sanctioned for a 2002 project in the Philippines. “CHEC is not involved in and has never been involved in any activity that has attracted any sanctions by the World Bank. CHEC itself has never been under any investigation by the World Bank” the company said in a statement to Stabroek News.
Another APNU member, Deborah Backer, noted that APNU’s position is if it supports something by the government but subsequently finds out that something is amiss, then they should ask for it to be reviewed and they see nothing wrong with this. “We were never and we are not against the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan Inter-national Airport. I want to place that on record…and if we approve a contract…and if subsequent to agreeing, information comes to hand that says to us we need to delve deeper, we would think the responsible thing is to [do so]… If we find out it stinks we would open it to remove the stench,” Backer said.
She pointed out that the world is not perfect and neither is the government or the opposition but they expect a certain minimum standard and there is need for proper oversight.
Meanwhile, Harmon said the important thing is that the government must take the information to the opposition and once they review the information, they would make a decision. Harmon said the contractor was hired to expand the airport and once the World Bank has taken a stand, credence must be given to its position since the World Bank is involved in many infrastructural projects here. “While the contract would have been with the Chinese company, while the contract may be funded by the Chinese government…we have to take note of anything that the World Bank says as it relates to infrastructural work in this country,” Harmon said.
He said after the elections APNU had requested from the government details of a number of contracts-including the one for the airport -which the Government had entered into in the last days of the previous administration. He said the government laid 20 of the contracts before the National Assembly and APNU started perusing the contracts prior to the consideration of the estimates.
The World Bank’s website list of Debarred & Cross-Debarred Firms & Individuals of China lists CCCC as debarred. Its Ineligibility Period is given as 12-JAN-2009 to 12-JAN-2017 with the following notation:- “Pursuant to Section 9.05 of the Sanctions Procedures, the ineligibility of China Road and Bridge Corp. applies to China Communications Construc-tion Company Limited as the successor … of China Road and Bridge Corp., in respect of contracts under a World Bank Group-financed or -executed project related to roads and bridges and extends to any firm directly or indirectly controlled by China Communications Construc-tion Company Limited in respect of such contracts. The period of ineligibility may be reduced by up to three years if, after five years from the date of ineligibility, the Sanctions Board determines that China Communications Construction Company Limited has put in place an effective corporate compliance program acceptable to the World Bank and has implemented this program in a manner satisfactory to the World Bank.”
