In a major embarrassment, the Donald Ramotar administration yesterday announced that the contract for the controversial US$18M Specialty Hospital at Liliendaal would be terminated and it will initiate legal action against Indian contracting firm Surendra Engineering Company Limited (SECL) for fraud and to recover public funds.
Stabroek News understands that government has already paid over more than $750M to the company for mobilisation works and it was not until a complaint was made by a local contractor that it began investigating the company.
Since the announcement of the award of the contract to SECL, it has been under scrutiny.
In a statement released yesterday, the government said it wrote to SECL informing of its intention to terminate the contract for the design and construction of the hospital, to pursue legal action against the company for fraud, and to recover public funds from SECL for which it has failed to account fully.
It revealed that since late June of this year, it has been engaging the company on a number of issues relating