With the suspension of funding by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to the Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue road expansion project, the contractor Sino Hydro Corporation Limited has begun to lay off employees.
In a letter posted on Facebook, the Chinese contractor informed employees that the decision to terminate their service is as a result of non-payment for three months by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MoPI).
Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, last night in a statement posted on his Facebook Page explained that the IDB took the decision to suspend disbursements to the project due to the numerous serious health and safety infractions as well as traffic management failures by the contractor. Patterson said that Sino Hydro was “warned on several occasions to rectify these issues but unfortunately to date the majority of failures identified have remained outstanding.”
This road expansion contract, he explained further, is an IDB-funded contract, which is subject to performance audits by the Bank.
“I have been on record on several occasions raising the issue about this contractor’s performance, so the suspending of disbursements by the IDB does not come as a surprise,” the minister said while noting that his ministry has already commenced actions to address the failings since some of these pose serious safety risks to the general public.
Patterson said that while the dismissal of any employee is regrettable, “the contractor should not seek to blame any other entity for the clear disregard of contractual obligations.”
Some employees were told that their last working day would be in December. In the letter posted on Facebook, the company informed employees that they will receive payments for their remaining vacation leave and one week’s salary as severance in addition to their final pay cheque.
Earlier this year, Patterson met with the Vice President of Sino Hydro Corporation Limited, and voiced concerns over the company’s “slow and disappointing” execution of the project.
As a result of the meeting, the company committed to revising its work programme and agreed to outline how they would allocate additional resources to ensure the work could be sped up, Stabroek News reported.
The project was handed over to the company early in 2018 after the contract was awarded and work commenced in the latter part of the year. The contract is pegged at US$31.03 million and is being financed by the IDB.
Head of the Public Infrastructure Ministry’s Work Services Group Geoffrey Vaughn had explained that the Sheriff Street to Mandela Avenue section will have an upgraded two-lane road, while Mandela Avenue, from the Cultural Centre, to the intersection with Hunter Street, and the beginning of the East Bank Highway will be upgraded to a four-lane road.The two-year project also encompasses lane and shoulder improvements, placement of sidewalks and paved shoulders, traffic signals, streetlights, drainage upgrade works, a pedestrian overhead walkway, culverts, bridges and a roundabout. The four-lane section will also feature a dividing median along with similar components of the two-lane section.
