Indian firm Fedders-Lloyd has abandoned its quest for a new bidding process for the US$18 million specialty hospital contract award, leaving the way clear for Surendra Engineering to construct the facility and Ministry of Health Deputy Permanent Secretary Trevor Thomas said work will “pick up” within a month after a supervisory firm is hired to overlook the construction.
Fedders-Lloyd, one of five Indian firms that bid for the construction contract and later charged that the procurement process was improper, said yesterday that it had given up on seeking a new tender process. It had written to the Indian EXIM Bank, which is responsible for funding the project, listing its concerns, after also writing to the Government of Guyana.
“We have given up on seeking any reversal or even a re-tender. It makes no sense anymore. Guyana is just a different country… We know nothing will come of this but should they require FL’s help if something goes wrong, we will always be willing to help,” an executive of the company told this newspaper.
Meanwhile, Thomas told Stabroek News yesterday that bids to supervise construction have already been submitted and are being evaluated. This, he explained, should soon be completed and approval granted for the contract within one month’s time.
“When the supervisory firm comes on board, things will pick up. We should see this in another month or so… most major projects will get a consultancy firm to overlook things and we are at a stage where we already tendered and [it] is at the evaluation,” he said.
Thomas also explained that the supervising consultancy will have to report and advise the ministry about key decision making. “This is something new in the region, so we have to bring in technical people to examine, advise and recommend various things to us,” he noted.
He added that the site has already been handed over to the Indian firm that won the US$18 million ($3,689,616,400) contract for construction, Surendra Engineering, which is now undertaking soil testing at the site. “We handed over the site already… I know they are doing the soil,” Thomas said.
When Stabroek News visited the site yesterday, work was ongoing on what appeared to be a temporary housing unit for employees. The site was empty except for two persons who were working on the wooden building.
Sill to be explained by the ministry is the downgrading of the $98 million contract awarded to prepare the site.
G Bovell Construction Service, which won the contract for the site preparation project over a year ago, was left tasked only with building a fence. The company would not go into the details of why the contract was downgraded by the Ministry of Health, but a representative 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. That aspect was completed.
G Bovell Construction Service began work in January last year on a preparation project that was to have included land filling, 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.
The duration given for the completion of the site preparation was originally three months but after more than a year it is still unclear what is responsible for the work not being completed or the recent decision to downgrade the contract.
