The Ministry of Health yesterday advertised for persons to submit expressions of Interest (E.o.I) for the supply, delivery and stockpiling of white sand to the Specialty Hospital site, Turkeyen but the deadline for submissions is 2pm today.
The advertisement came days after Stabroek News reported that that project appears to have stalled as a result of a hitch in the Indian financing following controversy between two Indian companies over how the contract was awarded.
It is unclear why the company contracted to landfill the site is unable to undertake the sand contract. When Stabroek News had tried contacting G. Bovell Construction, the said company, one of the numbers was disconnected and the other listed rang out.
This newspaper was unable to ascertain if the procurement notice had been run before or was only advertised yesterday, one day before the deadline. Several calls to the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Leslie Cadogan to ascertain this proved futile.
On the government’s eprocure site, www.eprocure.gov. gy, which is supposed to give a list of all of the government’s procurements there, was no listing of the procurement.
The advertisement in the Guyana Chronicle yesterday stated that the government will pay for the white sand at $1800 per cubic metre. Interested suppliers could submit their formal expression of interest along with supporting documents stating clearly their agreement to undertake the required task.
If it is their own equipment that will be used persons should submit their registration of ownership while if the equipment will be rented the rental agreement along with the ownership of the equipment has to be presented.
All E.o.Is are to be addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Lot 1 Brickdam Georgetown. They are to be submitted before 2pm today the notice states.
Preparatory ground work for the pegged US$18,180,000 ($3,689,616,400) specialty hospital appeared stalled even as Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran maintains that the project is a “living one”. He told Stabroek News when questioned about the status of the Indian line of credit last week that his ministry was going ahead as they had not received word that there was any hiccup.
Government is responsible for preparing the site before the building of the hospital commences. A total of $98M was awarded to G Bovell Construction Company back in January to begin preparatory works. The money allocated was to go towards land filling and preparation, building of the fence to the property, laying of drains, installation of four bridges and gates as entrances and exits and an access road.
The duration given for the completion of the site preparation works was three months.
However, when Stabroek News visited the site at Turkeyen on Wednesday and Friday last, there was no one present. The gate was closed and there was a notice to trespassers hung on it. An excavator and a bobcat were on the site.
There was no southern or western fence, but the eastern one was completed and the northern was near completion. Perhaps due to rainfall, there were three huge holes filled with water while the rest of the compound had grass and mounds of earth at varying locations.
The contract to design, build and equip the hospital was awarded to the Indian company Surendra Engineer-ing amidst much controversy. Stabroek News was reliably informed that the monies for the project have not yet been released by the Exim Bank of India.
The award has come under fire with not only one of the bidders but both parliamentary opposition parties calling for a probe into it.
Another Indian company, Fedders-Lloyd, had raised objections to the award of the contract to Surendra and local authorities were also forced to defend the manner in which the final decision was made.
