The problems associated with the shifting Hope Canal Bridge located at Hope on the East Coast of Demerara are due to poor design and not the failure of the contractor, Minister of Agriculture, Noel Holder says.
The minister, according to GINA, stated that records show that DIPCON Engineering Company, the contractor of the bridge, voiced reservations to the previous PPP/C government in relation to the design of the structure but the concerns were ignored by the previous Board of Directors of the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).
“The contractor apparently expressed hesitation in implementing the project. It is clear that the Board disregarded these concerns and proceeded in their haste to have the project commissioned for political purposes. This is unacceptable,” the Minister declared, according to GINA.
The NDIA Board of Directors, under the previous government had requested the consultant, Caribbean Engineering and Management Consultants (CEMCO), to state the reasons for the problems identified with the bridge approach. GINA said that in their response, CEMCO stated that the contractor’s work complied with the design and specifications of the project.
Given CEMCO’s declarations, it would have been virtually impossible for the NDIA Board, under the previous administration to withhold DIPCON’s retention in light of the consultant’s letter; as it was stated clearly that the contractor complied with the design and all specifications, GINA reported.
Honouring the contractor’s request for final payment by the current board of the NDIA was therefore in keeping with its contractual obligations, GINA said.
“To now blame the current Board (of NDIA) for bad decision making is unethical and an attempt to score cheap political points,” the Minister of Agriculture said.
This matter recently gained attention when immediate past President Donald Ramotar accused the present board of the NDIA of releasing what he described as the “retention” money to Dipcon when that could have been retained for remedial work.
“The last Board which was under my presidency had withheld what you call ‘Retention Money’ and that would have gone towards remedying the problem at the bridge,” Ramotar told Stabroek News.
“However, I understand that this new board that was set up under the current administration released those monies… now for whatever fixes they will have to take it out of the taxpayers’ pocket,” he added.
In the GINA release today, Holder said the actions by the previous NDIA Board of Directors remain detrimental to the country’s economy, as now the Ministry of Agriculture is forced to make additional financial inputs into the Hope Canal Bridge to rectify substandard works which could have been catered for during the defects liability period of the project.
The canal was initiated in the wake of the 2005 Great Flood and the Ministry of Agriculture and the NDIA played the lead roles in overseeing the project.
