The company that was awarded the $23 million contract for the repairs to the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus was yesterday accused of unacceptable and sloppy work by campus staffers during a visit by Education Minister Priya Manickchand.
“The library, the roof of the library, the gauge of zinc is the wrong gauge, the material used to hold up the roof is not greenheart and it is split all over… there are gaping holes and cracks,” President of the University of Guyana Senior Staff Association (UGSSA) Dr Patsy Francis told the minister yesterday, when she visited the campus.
“Many persons on campus are very unhappy with the quality and quantity of work in the past. During this process, there must be a mechanism put in place by the ministry through the university, so the contractor knows that when a complaint is made it must be addressed,” Francis further stated.
Manickchand, in response to complaints by members of staff, said that when she took office last year, works were ongoing by a different contractor and monitoring posed some difficulty at that point. “We take full responsibility for what has happened already but we could not monitor fully halfway. There’s a different consultant here now and there is a reason for that. I can understand your frustration at the matter. It is frustrating to me as well,” she admitted.
However, staffers express-ed disapproval at the work provided by the current contractor, the KERES Company, whose representative Radesh Hareshwar was also present during the minister’s visit.
“The men were working on the law building and the admin called and said the men were not washing, they were painting over. Subsequently, I took a cameraman there and took pics. Then some time after, they moved to the building housing the canteen. There, they had dirty walls and rust and these guys were rolling over the rust,” one professor said.
Hareshwar explained that the workers would usually wash up to a certain point, paint it, and then continue the process along every building. “The building was washed up to where the scaffold ended… What he did was take out where I stopped my work and where I did not wash. We will continue to wash where we left off and that has been the methodology we use on every building. I have pictures to show that we have washed the building,” he said.
Manickchand urged that this not be done but instead the entire building should be washed before painting for a more effective job. “If I am painting, naturally I wouldn’t want you to wash next to wet paint. Maybe that should be changed,” she suggested. This was accepted by the contractor.
At the building housing the Spicy Dish Cafeteria, Hareshwar’s workers were accused of painting over molud but according to him, that area was not even a part of the contract.
“That part of it, by the cafeteria, the wall is very porous. That is not even in the contract to be done. The guys accidentally paint that. …If we put the power wash on it, it might fall,” Hareshwar said impatiently.
“Don’t you have someone here all day? And don’t you have a foreman? You are supposed to have a foreman on the ground,” Manickchand responded, equally annoyed.
She urged the stakeholders to assist in monitoring the works and, if not done as expected, to report the matter to the ministry. She shared a detailed handout which will be attached to every building and which explained the work to be done on that specific building. If it is not done suitably, she asked that a report be made.
“I ask that you help us. It is impossible for the ministry to be here… Tell us when you see something going wrong. We are going to hear what you are saying and address it,” she promised.
Manickchand added that the university needs to include everyone in certain decision-making processes and that the buildings committee is not meeting as often as it should. “Something should not be hanging off a wall to injure people, if it is not addressed. These things speak more of the persons on campus and what can be done,” she added.
