Some $463M will be spent to carry out works on a section of the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) public road between Better Hope and Montrose, where work was previously undertaken by a defaulting contracting firm.
A similar contract sum was awarded to Falcon Transportation and Engineering Services (FTES) when that entity was tasked with carrying out works to the roadway earlier this year. The company’s contract was terminated for failure to meet the contract deadline as well as substandard work.
Cabinet Secretary Dr roger Luncheon said on Thursday at a press briefing that while it is not uncommon when work is incomplete and has to be taken over by a new contractor, it is often time an expensive proposition.
He said the new contractor ”must have found quite a bit of the work was substandard and not of the right quality and therefore the contract sum is almost as if it started all over again.”
He added, “Quite a bit of undoing will have to be undertaken, so I suspect that this is why either the same amount as in the original contract is or I have seen budget exceeding the earlier contract.”
Falcon engineering was tasked with carrying out preparatory works to Lot One of ECD expansion project between Better Hope and Montrose, while Dipcon Engineering was carrying out works to Lot Two of the project, which stretches from Montrose to Triumph. The contract signed between FTES and the government was valued at $468M.
However, the Works Ministry moved to terminate Falcon engineering’s contract after its engineers reported that the works were behind time and were substandard.
The Public Works Ministry has since invited the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers to review the termination of the contract.
Works Minister Robeson Benn stated at a press conference too that he was challenging allegations of corruption by the Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara-based contracting firm against public officers involved in the project.
As a result of the situation, Benn said that setting up of a committee to examine the performance of contractors to determine when or whether they should be blacklisted from government contracts is also being considered.
