The Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) was upbraided by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament yesterday for allowing the Port Kaituma Hospital project to continue without a bond in place to protect public funds.
The ministry’s engineer Bruce Wills had related to the committee that after the expiry of the mobilization bond for the site development works in March 2016, there had been a renewal, but the bond expired again two weeks ago.
The Auditor General’s 2015 report, which the PAC is examining, stated that five contracts totalling $158.231 million were awarded by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) during December 2015 for works at the Port Kaituma Hospital, with $16,510,000 of that sum being for site development work.
Other works to be completed were the construction of the generator building and installation of fixtures, construction of infections facility, completion of the administration building and the construction of the mortuary building and supply of its equipment.
The five contracts, according to Wills, were awarded to different contractors.
According to the report, the site development work was supposed to be completed two months after it commenced, with the date of commencement being 21 days after signing the contract.
As of September 2016, the works were yet to be completed and on March 29, 2016, the bond had expired, the report added. Furthermore, the Auditor General’s report stated that the ministry did not provide documentation to validate that an extension had been granted and it was unclear whether advanced payments had been recovered.
Collette Adams, the ministry’s Permanent Secretary (PS), said that the work was delayed due to bad weather, but the contractor has been written to and informed that should the project not be completed by June 30, 2017, there will be repercussions.
“PS that is good but there’s a bigger issue the FS [Financial Secretary] is pointing to. That is, if the contractor does not complete it you can’t do anything because there is no bond. And it’s a breach of the contract to have a contract going on without the bond,” Chairman of the Committee Irfaan Ali responded.
“…Three weeks before the bond expires you’re supposed to get the bond renewed and brought in. Right now they don’t have any safeguard for this project,” he chided.
After being asked by Ali what position the ministry would take if the contractor did not renew the bond, Wills explained that the contractor had already consented to bringing in a new bond today, following discussions. He also assured the committee that he has visited the site in the past months and the contractor is working to have the task completed.
Wills was asked to make available to the committee a copy of the bond he is expected to be in receipt of.
Ali proposed that action should also be taken against the consultant, identified as Calitech. Wills said that the entity’s consultancy has been extended to coincide with the extension of the project but said that the firm will be providing the service at no additional cost.
The consultant was also said to be associated with the contract related to the construction of the mortuary.
