Dear Editor,
As reported by SN, the bids have now been opened for construction of the major structures for the Hope Canal Project and hopefully after the documents have been analyzed contracts will be awarded to the lowest evaluated bidders.
In awarding these contracts, the Government of Guyana (GoG) through its Ministry of Agriculture/National Drainage and Irrigation Authority should be mindful of failures and lack of oversight with respect to the following previously awarded contracts: (a) slippage of the EDWC Dam at Cane Grove with extensive flooding of homesteads as a result of shabby rehab work; (b) slippage of steel sheet piling revetment into the Pomeroon River at Charity due to poor design and construction; (c) ferry stelling gantry collapse at Supenaam (cause is still a secret); and (c) time and cost overrun on the East Bank four-lane highway and Haags Bosch landfill. In all these cases GoG never recovered any cost from the contractors/engineers for liquidating damages and /or failure to perform as is usually the case with large contracts which are professionally prepared and executed. The people of Guyana had to foot the bills for remedial works and cost overruns in all these cases.
The tenders received suggest that the bidders have grossly under-estimated the complexity of the works involved, and they have all under bid, although they are well within the engineer’s estimates which are laced with omissions and imponderables. Therefore many pitfalls lie ahead for the contractors’ claims for change orders and not completing their work on time and within budget. However, GoG should ensure that it is not caught off-guard this time by examining the itemized bids carefully to see that bidders have not ‘front loaded’ their bid items thereby drawing down most of the contract’s costs before the job really gets going.
A CPM chart should be submitted and approved by GoG before construction starts to enable progress to be monitored closely and partial payment claims balanced for work done.
Finally, GoG should implement safeguards in the contracts to protect its investments by having each contractor sign a legally binding performance insurance bond with a reputable company and a clause for liquidating damages for time overrun. It should be made quite clear to the contractors that there will be no time extension for adverse weather/ tidal/foreshore/conservancy/ soil changing conditions encountered during construction as well as for the late delivery of materials.There should be no excuse to prevent them from getting their contract completed on time and within budget and GoG should ensure that the materials it is committed to supply (eg stainless steel doors for the sluice) are delivered on time and in no way delay the contractors from executing their work, as has been the case with the road project for Amaila Falls, where GoG had to give a time extension to the contractor because of its lapse. Supervision of construction should be carried out by qualified personnel to ensure that construction is executed in accordance with the drawings and specifications, so that at the end of it all there will be no need for finger-pointing and blame allocation for design, construction and supervision flaws, as was the case with the Supenaam stelling.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
