A new model contract for the maintenance of vital infrastructure is to be drawn up, according to a release from the Attorney General’s Chambers.
This was one of the conclusions from a meeting yesterday between the AG’s Chambers and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA).
The meeting followed an instruction by President Irfaan Ali to Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC to immediately review all service and maintenance contracts within the sphere of the Guyana Government and the entire state structure, in relation to drainage pumps, sluices, kokers and drainage and irrigation, generally, and to enforce any penalty clause against contractors who are in breach of their obligations under these contracts.
Ali also instructed the Attorney General that where such penalty clauses are absent, that these contracts be renegotiated for the purpose of inserting penalty clauses, which can be activated when contractors fail to discharge their duties under such contracts.
The instruction from Ali followed incidents during the current chronic flooding where it appeared that vital infrastructure was not being properly maintained and managed.
At yesterday’s meeting, Nandlall and a team of State Counsel attached to the AG’s Chambers met with Chairman of the NDIA, Lionel Wordsworth and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the NDIA Dave Hicks at the boardroom of the Ministry of Legal Affairs.
During the meeting, the relevant contractual documents were examined and the officials from the NDIA are to provide to the AG’s Chambers a brief of the facts and circumstances surrounding non-working drainage pumps that are subject to be maintained and kept functional under those contracts.
The release said that it was also decided that a new model contract is to be drawn up by the Attorney General which would provide specific terms and conditions relating to contractors’ defaults in relation to the maintenance and upkeep of drainage pumps.
This model contract will also provide for liquidated damages and for compensation to be paid when there is breach and negligence on the part of contractors which causes or contributes to flooding, the release added.
