Contractor, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) is responsible for the failure to meet the December 31, 2018 completion date for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion project which could see 5% of the US$150M contract sum withheld and utilized as liquidated damages, sources say.
Government is to meet with the company to discuss the percentage of work remaining and the estimated time of completion but officials told Stabroek News that “this government does not intend to pay a cent more” than the agreed-to costs.
“The obligation was on them to complete within the contracted time, failing which they could face liquidated damages,” one source close to the contract told this newspaper.
Initially scheduled to have been completed by December 2017, then December 2018, expansion works at the country’s main international airport continue and questions remained unanswered on current developments or when the project will be finished.
Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson in late October had assured that the project would be completed by December 31st 2018, having missed the December 2017 deadline.
At that time, Patterson said that the new Arrivals and Departure sections had been opened to passengers. He added that two of the boarding bridges were operational while two more would have been operational by the end of November 2018.
Minister within the Ministry of Public infrastructure, Annette Ferguson, has said that the contract with CHEC expired on December 31st last year but gave no new insight into what would be done.
Despite several attempts since last week, neither Patterson nor Ferguson could be reached for comment and public relations personnel, Andrew Weekes and Krest Cummings have not provided any information.
Weekes last week had said that Patterson was out of the country but reports on the project were available and he would ask Ferguson if they could be released to the public. However, following that conversation and his request to be called back, numerous calls to his phone went unanswered. Up to yesterday, he still had not provided the information.
Cummings had asked that the questions be emailed and she promised to “attend to the questions ASAP”. When contacted yesterday she first said that she was awaiting the go ahead to release the information but after repeated calls said that she did not know when the information would be available.
However, sources familiar with the project explained that it is CHEC that should be held liable for the delays as they had given “all assurances” that the project would be completed on schedule, despite the consultant noting that work had been proceeding at a very slow pace, most likely due to lack of workers.
The company, according to another source “had been cutting back on workers because they did not want to pay additional persons” and government is adamant that it would not be paying for any project extensions.
The source said that the company could not cite weather as a cause for the delay since “there has been exceptionally good weather over the months.”
Though the delay is seen as a humbug to the Guyanese people, the source opined that government could take some comfort in the fact that it holds a bond equal to five percent of the project cost and that the project provides for liquidated damages.
PPP/C shadow Minister of Public Infrastructure, Juan Edghill, has expressed concern about the incomplete project and costs to taxpayers, even as he highlighted extra costs already incurred.
Reflecting on the project, started by government in 2013, Edghill in a letter to Stabroek News, reminded that it was envisioned to be a design and build fix-priced contract with eight boarding gates (air bridges), a significantly extended runaway, new terminal buildings, state-of-the-art check-in and communication facilities, adequate conveyor belts to accommodate simultaneous multi arrivals and concession areas to facilitate transit and other global travellers.
The APNU+AFC government while in opposition had been critical of the project and had voted against funding for it in light of their concerns about the high cost to taxpayers and the potential relocation of some 1,500 residents of the Timehri North area, he wrote.
Edghill claimed that the APNU+AFC government “renegotiated the contract, giving us two air bridges and has now found extra money from the national purse to buy another two at a higher price, in a most questionable manner.”
He pointed out that it is now 2019. “The project as of December 31st 2017 had spent US$111.79M (81%) of the US$150M allocated to the total project cost. When is the project really expected to be completed since another deadline has been missed? What will be the final price? Will they be attempting to appropriate further funding? These are all questions the already burdened taxpayers of this country need answers to…” he wrote.
He said that the PPP/C has already indicated that it intends to call for a “value for money” audit on this project.
