Dear Editor,
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure finds itself once again denouncing a grossly incorrect report published by the online news outlet, iNews Guyana, this time on October 19, 2017, under the headline ‘Sheriff St/Mandela Ave upgrade now a US$61M project as price doubles’.
A similar article also appeared in the October 19, 2017 edition of Guyana Times, under the headline, ‘Sheriff Street/Mandela Ave upgrade price doubles’.
The ministry wishes to reject the statements contained within the articles as false and we offer the following information as the facts.
Firstly, the reported Engineer’s Estimate (EE) of US$61,450,794 is incorrect. For the summation of the individual lots (Lots 1,2,3,4 and 5) the estimate is $31,016,254.57. However, if the bidder wanted to tender for Lot 6, which is the combination of all the lots, the EE is $30,734,542.70. The article seems to have summated both estimates as the EE.
Secondly, on the point of restricted bidding, iNews and Guyana Times have once again provided the public with incorrect information. The project was tendered through International Competitive Bidding (ICB) procedures, inclusive of advertising in all the local newspapers.
Finally, the Bid Security is usually between 1 to 2% of the EE; therefore, the required bid security for this project is no anomaly.
The ministry also notes that it was only a week ago that iNews published that government intended to scrap the entire Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue project. This week, the same news outlet is claiming that the project is still on but double the price; there were no retractions or explanations offered by the news outlet on the previous article.
Furthermore, the ministry notes with consternation that iNews Guyana, at no point in time, made contact with ministry officials to verify information or seek out a comment.
We therefore call on the members of the public to be wary of the misleading news coming out of this entity.
Yours faithfully,
Desilon Daniels
Public Relations Officer
Ministry of Public Infrastructure
