The multimillion-dollar specialty hospital to be built at Turkeyen appears to have hit another hurdle as the $98 million contract awarded to prepare the site has been downgraded, leaving the contracting firm tasked only with building a fence.
G Bovell Construction Service, which won the contract for the project over a year ago, would not go into the details of why the contract was downgraded by the Ministry of Health, but a company official did confirm that it was now only responsible for building the fence of the property at a fraction of the cost of the original project. The official said this should soon been completed.
A source, who is knowledgeable about the contract, confirmed to Stabroek News that the adjustment was made. The source added that no reason was given to the firm about why the contract scope was altered and suggested that it may be reluctant to speak out for fear of being sidelined from future contracts.
The duration given for the completion of the site preparation was originally three months and after more than a year it is still unclear what is responsible for the work not being completed.
Health Minister Dr Bheri Ramsaran, who just two months ago described the project as “alive and well,” yesterday said that to the best of his knowledge there was no alteration of the original contract agreement. However, he admitted that he might not be “on top of things” and that checks should be made with the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Leslie Cadogan.
Ramsaran said that he usually would be given updates on work at the site every Monday morning at briefings where his ministry’s Chief Engineer is also present. But he said the meeting was not held this week because of other pressing engagements. However, up to last week, he said, everything was “normal”.
Stabroek News had last week tried on numerous occasions to contact Cadogan but was told that he was either out of office, at a meeting, at a workshop or on vacation. His secretary asked that questions be directed to Deputy Permanent Secretary Trevor Thomas, but when this was done last Friday, he requested that the newspaper check back with him on Monday by which time he would be familiarised with the contract details. When contacted yesterday, he directed questions back to Cadogan.
The Government Information Agency (GINA) in January this year quoted Ramsaran as saying that the work at the specialty hospital site was on stream due to favourable weather conditions. “Further to that you have a good vision now of the scope of the project – the land is clear and the contractor Bovell was on site and we are hoping that we could work with him to speed up some of the works that need to be done,” Ramsaran said.
In November of 2011, G Bovell Construction Service had submitted a $97 million bid to undertake preparatory works at the site of the hospital. Cabinet approved the contract in January of 2012 and work commenced.
Ramsaran had informed Stabroek News in early January of last year that the contract was awarded to the G Bovell Construction Service to the tune of $98 million.
The money allocated, he explained then, would go towards land filling and preparation, building of the fence for the property, the laying of drains, installation of four bridges and gates at entrances and exits and an access road. A team, which included personnel from the construction company, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Finance and Ramsaran was present at the commencement of work, which saw levelling and clearing of the ground. A worker had said then that demarcation of the area was done and clearing of bush to commence fence building was ongoing.
When a summary of the preparatory works of the project was outlined, a company official maintained that the firm was not given the contract for all the works. “No, we were not given that contract,” the official said.
G Bovell previously ran into trouble when its contract to build a section of Amaila Falls’ road was terminated by government after its equipment was repossessed.
The company official who spoke with this newspaper sought to clear the air on the issue, saying that the contract was cancelled abruptly and that it was not given a chance to obtain new machinery to commence work. “They [government] didn’t even give us a chance to get machinery, they just cancel the contract. The equipment was seized by ‘Jumbo’ [the company they bought it from] because of non-payment of installments,” the official said. “The equipment was faulty and we had to pay money to fix this and that, so we decided we won’t pay anything else on it and they seized it,” the official added.
Last year, a US$18 million contract was awarded to Surendra Engineering for the construction of the hospital but since the announcement it has come under fire.
Fedders Lloyd, one of five Indian firms which bid for the project, charged that the procurement process was improper and vowed to make a complaint to the Indian government, which is responsible for the line of credit for the construction.
Meanwhile, GINA had reported that a team from Surendra visited Guyana and met Cadogan as part of an obligatory meeting to start preliminary talks and to review the progress made on the site.
It added that in relation to some concrete works, which seem to be at a standstill, Cadogan would be looking at how the ministry could work with the contractor to speed up that aspect.
Currently, work on the site seems to have once again ground to a halt, close to two months after a rush to deposit sand there.
When Stabroek News visited the site recently, the gates were closed and security personnel at nearby properties said the compound had been that way ever since the sand was supplied. Piles of sand were in the compound, but did not look as if they were being used to fill the site.
Ramsaran said yesterday that Surendra was “on the site” conducting its own work in preparation for the construction of the hospital.
Further, he said the ministry is looking at prospective supervisory consultant companies to overlook Surendra’s work and to ensure that Guyanese are given value for money on the project.
