New operator for Haags Bosch landfill being sought

After a fall-out with the previous operator, the Ministry of Communities (MoC) has advertised for a new operator for the Haags Bosch landfill.

In an ad in the Kaieteur News yesterday, the ministry said it has received funding from the Government of Guyana towards the financing of the Operation Services at the Haags Bosch Landfill and invited bids from eligible bidders to provide such services.

The ad said that the works include but are not limited to the operation of the Haags Bosch Sanitary landfill for a period of one year with an option for an extension. It also includes the maintenance of the site, the equipment, the building and the plants as specified in the Employer‘s Requirements. Also included is the development of the temporary roads and areas necessary for the correct off-loading and disposal of the waste as well as the operation of the leachate treatment facility and any other subsidiary facility on site as per the Employer’s Requirements.

The contract would also include the development of the landfill gas wells and trenches within the waste mass and the recording of all the relevant information and the provision of all the requested deliverables and reports as per the Employer’s Requirements and any other activity necessary to carry out the assigned Operation Service explicitly or implicitly included in the Contract Documents.

The management of the Haags Bosch site is currently engaging the attention of the courts as the Government of Guyana is appealing a ruling made by former acting Chief Justice Ian Chang that the termination of a contract awarded to BK International to construct and manage the Haags Bosch landfill site at Eccles was hasty and unfair.

In November, Justice Chang handed down a judgement in favour of the construction company and one-time site manager of the landfill project, seven months after a court action was filed against the abrupt termination of the contract which was to expire in 2019.

In his 80-page ruling, he said that given the provisions of the contract, “The respondents were under a public law obligation to afford BK an opportunity of being heard before it made any decision to terminate the contract. Had such an opportunity been afforded to BK, BK could have pleaded the numerous admitted breaches of the contract by the respondents themselves (including the serious breach of those provisions relating to the provision of finances to BK) as causes affecting its performance to its own detriment and to the prejudice of the public interest.”

Since the ruling BK had remained at the site but when Stabroek News visited yesterday, it was relayed that BK was no longer there and Pooran Brothers is now in charge.