While the authorities seem unclear about the purpose, massive land preparation works have again begun at a site at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara, which was once slated for government’s specialty hospital.
Stabroek News yesterday visited the area where clearing of the lands had begun and a house which was situated on the site has been demolished and removed. A number of wooden piles were stockpiled at various locations on the site.
Excavators and other machinery were present but there was no one operating them at the time of this newspaper’s visit.
This newspaper checked with the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Health and the Office of the Prime Minister to ascertain the purpose of the works. However, each government body stated that it was unaware of the matter and denied involvement in the project.
Last year, during its elections campaign, the PPP/C had stated that the resuscitation of the controversial specialty hospital project was one of its planned strategies to boost the local healthcare sector should it win the March 2 elections.
“Specialty care is limited [here] and we will return to [the] PPP flagship project. We are going to build the specialty hospital,” current Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony had announced at a rally in Essequibo, although he did not say where the hospital would be located.
The PPP/C had in 2012, embarked on the intended project at Turkeyen, East Coast Demerara but it was mired in controversy. The contractor, Surendra Engineering Company Limited, was selected in August 2012 amid allegations of favouritism, and was subsequently fired by the Donald Ramotar administration on a variety of grounds including fraud.
In October 2015, the then PPP/C government filed a lawsuit against Surendra, accused the company of breach of contract and fraud and sought the recovery of the US$4.2 million in advance payments for the project.
It was a major embarrassment for the PPP/C administration, which had used Surendra for several key contracts, including the troubled Enmore packaging plant, and had been accused of favouring it in the US$18 million Specialty Hospital contract. The government eventually secured a default judgment against the company, which failed to enter an appearance in the action. By that time, Surendra no longer had a presence in Guyana, which limited the administration’s ability to enforce the judgment.
The APNU+AFC government sought to continue the project but it was discontinued after its handpicked contractor, Fedders Lloyd, was barred by India from participating in such contracts until 2020.
