Although the Ministry of Education (MoE) has extended the timelines for the completion of several projects ongoing at the University of Guyana (UG) Turkeyen campus, it has warned it will terminate those not completed on the revised schedule.
There are currently three projects under the Ministry’s purview ongoing at the UG Turkeyen campus. These include the university’s new Human Resources and Bursary Building, the pump house which is intended to drain the campus and relieve it from continuous flooding during heavy rains, and the campus’ sewerage project which is replacing the decrepit 55-year-old system.
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand yesterday toured the projects.
The team accompanying Manickchand during the inspection included Chief Engineer, Ronald Eastman; MoE Permanent Secretary, Alfred King; UG Vice-Chancellor, Paloma Mohamed; Director of Estates and Maintenance, Bjorn Williams; and Carmichael Thorne, Deputy Director of Maintenance.
Giving a background on these projects at the inspection yesterday, the minister said that most of the contracts were awarded in February 2019. The construction of the pump house was slated for completion four months after the contract was awarded and to date, according to Manickchand, it is only 30 per cent completed. She added that the consistent flooding of the Turkeyen campus by heavy rainfall is what pushed the MoE to ensure that a pump house is constructed on the campus. The contractor for this project was not on site but the ministry’s Permanent Secretary indicated that the timeline for completion of this contract will be finalised today.
Regarding the construction of the bursary building, Manickchand said that the university decided that a new building was urgently needed and the contractor for this project had been given a timeline of nine months to complete the project. She noted that the contract was awarded in December 2019 and the initial proposed date of completion has been passed by a few months with only 30 per cent of the building being completed. However, the project engineer explained that the delay in completion of this project was due to a last-minute location change which posed many difficulties for the company. He added that the project started in December and has indicated to the Ministry that it will be completed by the end of May.
Meanwhile, the contract for the construction of the $282.9 million sewerage system was also awarded in December 2019 with an agreed 2-year completion timeline. However, according to the project engineer, physical works only began in January 2021 after being faced with a number of delays including sick staff and the COVID-19 pandemic. It was agreed that the project will be completed in 2022 as per new timeline.
Providing further insight into the delays, Vice-Chancellor Mohamed said that 2020 was not a normal year and many contractors were not able to get their projects completed because of workers being sick and the university itself had requested that all works cease for three months in an effort to tighten up security after it was discovered that campus buildings were being breached.
However, she noted that the issue of incomplete works going past agreed timelines was not a new one and as a result of this the university administration has formed an internal unit which will allow management to guide the implementation of all projects.
She added, “These delays are frustrating and we are happy to see the ministry throwing their weight behind making sure that these projects move forward.”
Manickchand said that the Ministry will no longer tolerate the delays in projects and if money is instantly allocated towards a project that means that it is really needed. She posited that the failure to finish these projects means that MoE and the contractors have failed the students and lecturers of an important tertiary institution in Guyana and added that the ministry is prepared to take firm action against all contractors who fail to complete a project within a given date.
“We have terminated two contractors already and we are about to terminate a third for the same thing. So we want to be very clear to the contractors that if you bid for work at the Ministry and work within the new timelines and it’s based on that we either renew or unapologetically terminate,” she declared
The minister added that given that the UG campus is closed, this would be the perfect time for construction work as it will not be disturbing students who would normally be in lectures or examinations.
