The construction company that built the Kato Secondary School says it is being wrongfully blamed for the school’s incompletion and alleged defects, as it met the required contractual obligations for the original sums provided.
“We were contracted to build the school for $728,165,485, to be completed in two years and we built the school as specified, for the said sum within the timeframe given,” an official of Kares Engineering told Stabroek News in an interview.
Minister of State Joseph Harmon last month told the press that an evaluation done by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure found that the building was not safe enough to be occupied by children.
“Remedial work has to be done and the Kato Secondary School, that school is not being occupied as yet and the contractor who was given the contract has been called in and they are basically dealing with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure in relation to that contract and several other contracts that particular contractor had with the Ministry of Education,” Harmon said.
The Kato school complex was built as a precondition for the investment of almost €1.8 million in European Union (EU) funding, for the proposed Kato Hydropower Project. The school was envisaged to be the main consumer of power supplied by the plant.
