Chinese contractor, CHEC yesterday said that the US$138m expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri was 97% complete at the end of 2019 and it says it has since provided the PPP/C government with a revised schedule of works and other outstanding matters as per the existing contract.
China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) has dealt with three governments since the start of the controversy-ridden project in January 2013 and in a statement yesterday it detailed the various alterations to the project and how the changes in government impacted the project.
President Irfaan Ali toured the project on September 21 this year in the presence of China’s Ambassador to Guyana Cui Jianchun. Ali in a statement from the Office of the President after the visit had expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the expansion project and said that he would only accept the US$138m CJIA expansion works as was outlined in the original contract.
“I am holding everyone responsible; the contractor, the consultant, the project management team…this is not acceptable for the Guyanese people. In this current position it is very clear from all that I have seen and heard, and from all the questions asked, it is very clear that something is horribly wrong. The right decision at this moment is that we cannot accept this”, Ali stated.
Yesterday CHEC gave a timeline for the changes that had occurred to the original contract and the various extenuating circumstances including a cutoff of funding from China’s Exim Bank.
It said that the contract for the Airport Expansion Project (AEP), which was signed on November 11, 2011, for US$138M between the Government and CHEC had a specific Scope of Works to be included in the price and officially started on January 16, 2013.
CHEC added that the contract established that the contractor’s submission of the price had certain conditions; importantly, it excluded the handling equipment and the removal of the existing terminal, among other things, and specifically set out the employer’s responsibility to supply the equipment for eight bridges and other handling equipment.
The Chinese company added that geotechnical investigations of the location exposed unforeseen conditions compared to the original data provided to the contractor. After discussions, both parties reached an agreement that the original contract plan could not be implemented, CHEC said. The employer then instructed CHEC to provide alternatives, the statement said.
In 2013, CHEC said that it provided several options, each of which included an increase in the sizes of the apron and taxiway areas with the relevant cost due to the variation to the employer and in January 2015, the employer informed the contractor that it had chosen one of the alternative proposals submitted.
CHEC pointed out that during the period January 2013 to May 2015, budget allocations for the Project were not approved by Parliament, which prevented the contractor from executing the works as planned. This had been as a result of the then opposition-controlled Parliament.
The contractor said that works restarted on the project in May 2015 but were halted when the new APNU+AFC administration requested a review of the project and advised CHEC to suspend construction during the review period.
After the review period ended, CHEC said that both parties agreed to the revised terms, which considered the Government’s budget, changes, and claims to the project prior to 2015. CHEC said that it also included an adjustment to the scope of work to adapt to the total contract value. Both parties, it said, signed a Variation of the Contract Agreement in October 2015.
The revised scope of work replaced the new departure terminal building, parking aprons, and eight boarding bridges – to be supplied by the Government of Guyana – with a renovation of and new construction area in the existing departure terminal building, parking aprons and four boarding bridges, two of which were to be supplied by the contractor and the two by the government.
CHEC added that due to the general elections held in Guyana in 2015 and the contract variations that arose thereafter, China’s Exim Bank, because of the risks involved, stopped disbursements on the loan. From January 2013 to the early months of 2016, CHEC said that it funded the execution and construction of the Project from its financial resources.
In January 2016, CHEC said that the preliminary plan for redesigning the terminal building was agreed upon between the parties. The renovation of the departure terminal and the construction of the new arrival terminal building began.
“However, the Employer could not provide the original terminal building’s as-built drawings to the contractor and this impacted the execution of the redesign. The Employer at the same time instructed that the construction works could not affect the airport service and operation. This development severely impacted the work scheme and project implementation schedule”, CHEC stated.
It added that by the end of 2019, the project was 97 percent complete but the general elections of 2020, coupled with the global pandemic, forced CHEC to significantly reduce its workforce, which again affected the project’s completion.
Following the declaration of the elections result, CHEC said that the new Government through the Ministers of Public Works and President Irfaan Ali visited the project site and made several public observations and statements.
“CHEC has paid careful attention to those statements and, on September 29th and 30th, immediately dispatched its Vice President Liu from Beijing and the President of its Americas Division Dr. Zhimin Hu. Since then, CHEC has provided to the Government of Guyana through the Ministers of Public Works and the Office of the President comprehensive updates on the Project, including a revised schedule of works and other outstanding matters as per the present existing contract”, the statement yesterday said.
CHEC said that it wished to clarify that its commitments to the government are to comply with the request under the current contract signed between the parties. Presently, CHEC said it is engaged in discussions with the government and is fully cooperating to seek the delivery of the project according to its contractual obligations.
“It is our hope that the comprehensive synopsis provided here will bring clarity about the Project so that future reports can be accurate in its interpretation of the scope of the Project”, the statement said.
