Almost three months after a review on the unusable new Supenaam stelling was ordered there has been no word from the authorities on the fate of the installation and who is to be held responsible.

President Bharrat Jagdeo ordered the review of the currently inoperable Supenaam ferry stelling nearly three months ago, following charges by construction company, BK International, that modifications done by the Ministry of Works led to its current state.

This newspaper has made numerous unsuccessful attempts over the past weeks to obtain information from the Office of the Prime Minister after persons there noted that a statement would have been issued regarding the project review. The review was undertaken by two engineers who were selected by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds.

Persons along the Essequibo Coast told Stabroek News yesterday that they were anticipating  the stelling to be fixed several weeks  ago  and according to a businessman, the stelling would “greatly” assist in the loading of goods for his business.

He stated that the present arrangement at the Adventure stelling “is risky”, where the loading and off-loading of trucks and other heavy vehicles are concerned.

The Public Works Ministry has denied that it was to be blamed for the state of the stelling and said it was the Transport and Harbours Department that took over a facility “which was inadequate to handle the typical flotation as well as the arrangement to get on to the vessel for the heavy truck traffic from the Essequibo”.

Minister of Transport, Robeson Benn stated that the Ministry of Local Government supervised the construction of the Pomeroon/ Supenaam ferry stelling and later issued a certificate of completion to BK International even though the completed project had obvious defects.

The ferry stelling, now inoperable because of structural problems, was completed to the tune of $431 million of contract approved funds; an additional $17.2 million was expended by the Ministry of Public Works in modification works, Benn had said.

The modifications included a drawbridge and a pontoon, both of which Benn said were “absolutely necessary” because the ministry took over the stelling “with great concerns”.

The drawbridge was a major source of contention between BK and the Works Ministry, with BK saying that it should not have been attached to the loading ramp and Benn saying that the installation of the 1.7-tonne steel drawbridge was to guarantee the safe offloading and reloading of vehicles, particularly trucks.