Port Kaituma residents in the North West District of Region One are disputing a recently “completed” multi-million dollar road project, which they say has not been delivered.
According to the project document, seen by this newspaper, 220 rods of road works between the School Road Junction and Lalta Persaud Residence— which passes through the community and provides a critical link to areas there—was inspected by the superintendent of works/engineer of the Region One, Cy Rodrigues, in December last year and was signed off as completed.
However, residents are questioning the project, saying while persons may have benefitted “handsomely” from it, they are still awaiting its completion.
Photographs provided by a resident last week gave an indication as regards the current state of the road and residents were hoping that the issue would addressed soon by the regional authorities.
The road had been in a deplorable state for over a year and after several complaints by residents to the regional authorities, the contract was awarded for the rehabilitation of the pegasse road and for it to be upgraded to a bitumen surfaced road.
The contract for the project was carried out by Bishnu Persaud and Sons of Anna Regina, on the Essequibo Coast. The contract was valued at $15,468,100 and of this amount $4,640,430 was paid initially to the contractor. According to the document, in December last year, the regional engineer had verified that the project was completed following an inspection by him, and the remaining sum of $9,280,860 was due to the contractor.
According to reports out of the region, it was paid in full. The project was put to tender by the regional tender board and was awarded to the contractor during the first half of 2010.
When contacted for a comment, the Assistant Regional Executive Officer (REO) of the region, who is based at Port Kaituma, Dion Seecharran offered no comment. He referred all queries to the REO acting of Region One, Nigel Fisher, who was unavailable for comment.
According to a reliable source at Port Kaituma, there had been speculation in the Matarkai sub-region that persons were fully paid for “a project that we still looking out for.” He said that in mid-2010, he was told by someone associated with the regional tender board that the contractor was looking for someone to whom he could have sub-let the contract.
He said that “somebody from the region was even making plans for the project but the person said that the scope of it was too much for too little money.” He added that the contractor had expressed “hesitation” about transporting heavy duty equipment to the area to carry out the works, which he could not afford.
