The Public Works Ministry is inviting the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers (GAPE) to review the recent termination of the contract of Falcon Transportation and Construction Services (FTCS) for the East Coast Demerara (ECD) four-lane extension project.
This was announced by Transport Minister Robeson Benn at a press conference yesterday at his Wight’s Lane, Kingston office, where he tried to explain why the contractor continued to be utilised despite concerns about its track record. He also challenged allegations of corruption by the Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara-based contracting firm against public officers involved in the project.
As a result of the situation, Benn said that setting up of a committee to examine the performance of contractors to determine when or whether they should be blacklisted from government contracts is also being considered. President Donald Ramotar had recently hinted at this possibility at a recent procurement seminar.
The ministry had announced that the contract of FTCS was terminated for non-performance and for falsifying results of compressive strength tests, among other transgressions. The ministry also accused the company of concocting allegations of corruption against public officers. Company officials have previously denied requests by this newspaper to address the issue and attempts yesterday to reach the company for a comment were futile.
When asked why the contract was not terminated earlier given the contractor’s record, Benn said yesterday that there were concerns all along by the engineers supervising the works. He said that he personally visited the site in April this year and he endorsed the concerns of the engineers. As a result, he spoke to the contractor, who assured that the identified shortcomings will be addressed. However, the contractor did not fulfil his promise, he said.
“My sense of it shortly thereafter is that we should finish it… we had to go through some procedures,” he explained, while adding that there were also alterations to the design of the works but he noted that this did not have any bearing on the works being undertaken.
“There was no problem until we cancelled the contract… it appears this ministry (Public Works) is being damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t,” he said, while announcing that the ministry will invite GAPE to pronounce on the issue, including the legal and professional aspects of the contract.
‘Blacklisting’
Benn also said that several years ago there was a routine maintenance contract which was being funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and he alleged that the contractor had falsified documentation for the project. He said too that the contract for the upgrading of the 1,100M of sea defences at Turkeyen/Ogle ECD was terminated because of poor performance by FTCS.
Asked why the contractor was not blacklisted by the authorities given the company’s history, Benn said that there is no specific procedure for such action.
”He was the lowest qualified tender… so he qualified but, as was stated at the recent seminar, we have to look at issues of blacklisting and what period of time, the terms of the period of blacklisting… maybe the financers [of projects], the planners or some committee may have to be involved,” he explained.
As regards the allegations of corruption by ministry officials, Benn stated that while such allegations would be addressed. ”What we have is a situation of cows going to the slaughterhouse. If these things are true, take it to the police, the Office of the President, the Auditor General’s Office,” he said.
Benn noted that FTCS, which was paid $207M for works under the $468M contract, was also being scrutinised by the Agriculture Ministry for works undertaken for it.
He said that the ministry could not make additional payments to the contractor, other than the mobilisation advance sum of $140M among other payments earlier in the year, since the contractor had not equally lived up to the expectations of the contract in terms of time.
This newspaper understands that the contractor is owed a sum of $8M by the ministry and this is being finalised as the final payment as regards the contract.
Stabroek News understands that the company has been flagged by the Agriculture Ministry for non-performance of works done at La Parfaite Harmonie housing scheme and that matter is currently before the courts.
FTCS was awarded a contract on September 6, 2011 in the sum of $468.2M to widen the public road and construct concrete drains on both sides of the road from Better Hope to Montrose, ECD. The start date of the contract, termed Lot One, was November 14, 2011 with a completion date of July 14, 2012.
The future of the works was being discussed by the Works Ministry yesterday, as Lot Two of the road extension project, which is being undertaken by Dipcon Engineering between the villages of Le Ressouvenir and Triumph, moves apace.
