With questions being raised about its competence to build the new Fire Service Headquarters, Mohamed’s Enterprise is defending the award of the $641 million contract and says it has been involved in construction for some 30 years now.
On Wednesday, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mae Thomas and Managing Director of Mohamed’s Enterprise Nazar Mohamed signed the contract for the building of the Fire Service Headquarters at Homestretch Avenue, west of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall and next to the proposed Guyana Football Federation’s complex.
In a press statement yesterday, Mohamed’s Enterprise said that it stands by a track record of quality, efficiency, competence and commitment to the growth and development of Guyana while rejecting insinuations about its experience and competence. The company, better known for gold trading, said that it has been bombarded with “unqualified critiques” about whether it is experienced and qualified for the award of such a massive contract.
The questions about the company’s competence come on the heels of the awarding of a $346 million contract for the construction of a primary school at Bamia in Linden to St8ment Investment Inc – which was formed in March of this year by principals with no experience in the construction field.
Mohamed’s Enterprise said that as part of its three decades in the construction industry, it erected two state-of-the-art buildings: the ISA Islamic School, the Albouystown Masjid, its Lombard Street Headquarters and “countless homes for Guyanese in need of such space.” It added that with the experience garnered, it constructed four of the major laydown yards currently in use by many of the oil and gas companies and tier one contractors.
“Our exceptional work remains unmatched as we continued over the recent years to construct apartment buildings, homes and other facilities to meet growing demands. Mohamed’s Enterprise has used its resources, its labour, skilled and competent Guyanese engineers, contractors and workers to respond to the demand for quality work and for that, we have no apologies in ensuring that the best quality work and projects would benefit all Guyanese,” the company said.
Alluding to the construction of homes for the Central Housing and Planning Authority, the company said that it has already begun handing over those buildings ahead of the contract period.
Back in June, the Ministry of Home Affairs signed contracts worth an estimated $1.2b for the reconstruction of the Lusignan Prison Lots 1-3 and among the recipients were Mohamed’s Enterprise for the reconstruction of one of those blocks. In relation to that project, Mohamed’s Enterprise also said that it is way ahead of schedule and ahead of the more seasoned contractors in the other blocks.
“The fact that many of our projects have been started and completed within varying deadlines, speaks to our capacity. Unlike other contractors, we are not dependent on mobilization and or milestone payments from the government of Guyana; we commence and complete projects on our own”, the statement related.
The company said that it has the financial capacity to run its projects without waiting for a payout from the government and as such, it is able to mobilise and get the project started within the stipulated time and completed way ahead of other contractors.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs announced the signing of the contract with construction expected to commence no later than December 1, 2021, with a 14 months completion deadline.
There were 12 bids received and according to the engineer’s estimate, the project is expected to cost $648,600,670.
The 12 companies were PD Contracting with a bid of $580,131,313; International Imports & Supplies $620,043,794; A&N Enterprise $616,616,534; Quality Deliverer $490,580,934; SD Investment $630,265,880; Navin & Son’s Construction $587,313,476; Memorex Enterprises $604,009,738; STP Investment Inc $648,077,094; Mohamed’s Enterprise $858,788,980; Nabi Construction Inc $619,881,084; Ivor Allen $641,490,199 and R. Bassoo & Sons Construction Company Inc $ 657,298,466.
According to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) website, Mohamed’s Enterprise submitted a bid for $858,788,980 so it is unclear as to how a contract was signed for $614 million. Repeated efforts, on Wednesday and yesterday, to obtain clarification from NPTAB’s Chairman Tarachand Balgobin were unsuccessful.
In a letter in yesterday’s Stabroek News, former Finance Minister Winston Jordan said that a longstanding practice to streamline tender documents has been abandoned by the PPP/C administration.
He explained that during the APNU+AFC government all budget agencies were asked to clear their tender documents, once the value exceeded their thresholds, with NPTAB before releasing it for public tendering. This move allowed NPTAB to ensure that there was consistency in the documents and that the evaluation criteria were suitable for the type of procurement. Under the agreement budget agencies were required to make the necessary corrections before the bid documents were approved.
Jordan said that with the NPTAB’s approval on the bidding documents, bidders were assured both of the authenticity of the document and the process. He added that on September 24, 2020, Balgobin in his capacity as Director, Project Cycle Management Division at Ministry of Finance wrote to all Heads of Budget Agencies (HoBAs) informing them that the process has been abandoned.
“While Balgobin’s disclosure appears innocuous, it has serious implications; it has, with the stroke of a pen, removed a critical check and balance from the NPTAB and deposited it in the Budget Agency. Each HoBA can now, for example, develop their own set of evaluation criteria for projects under their control, thereby creating confusion and laying the basis for corruption,” Jordan’s letter stated.
