Putting contractors on notice that her Ministry will not be accepting substandard work and delays in the construction of buildings to house students, Education Minister, Priya Manickchand, yesterday turned the sod for the expansion of two schools in Georgetown.
The total cost for constructing the extensions for the two schools, East Ruimveldt Secondary School and St. Winefride Secondary School, is $257M. “… if you do not perform your name will walk before you, and when other jobs come on the site and we say nah nah we don’t want him…” Manickchand said when she addressed a small gathering at the sod turning for the expansion of the St Winefride Secondary School.
According to the Minister, construction opportunities in the public sector are plenty, however, it is up to the contractor to perform. If they don’t receive additional work, it will be their fault. “Don’t be dishonest, don’t cut corners. Understand that if you don’t finish is children that is suffering and for everything you do, ask yourself how would you want your child to be treated?” the Minister asked. Noting that the Ministry’s engineers and technical officers will be very vigilant in supervising the constructions, she cautioned that they will implement penalties for delays. “You go over we will start applying liquidation…” she warned.
In the context of the performance call, when asked on the sidelines of the event if her Ministry required a performance track record of the contractor as a part of its tender requirements, she responded in the negative. She stated that while it makes sense to have a performance register of contractors, her ministry does not have that nor has any evaluation records been shared with her procurement team. She went on to state that after a bid is advertised for a project, the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) absorbs the responsibility of the project until it is green lighted by Cabinet.
“The Tender Board has its own rules and… is governed by a particular law called the Procurement Act. I do not hold the jurisdiction to administer that law or interfere with it in anyway. [The Ministry] has to comply with the Act,” she stated, before suggesting that the question be directed to the NPTAB.
More questions are likely to be raised on the importance of a performance record based on the Minister’s comments and in light of the recent award to Kares Engineering for the reconstruction of the North Ruimveldt Secondary School following Kares’s disastrous construction performance of the Kato Secondary School in Region 8.
With the turning of the sod for the new building that will house Grade Seven students at the East Ruimveldt Secondary School, Delph Construction will erect a new building at a cost of $172 million. This building will accommodate 10 classrooms, an administrative block, a sanitary block and air conditioning units. When commissioned, 300 students are expected to benefit from 10 more spacious classrooms. Meanwhile, Singh and Son, who has been in the construction business for approximately 15 years, will also construct a new building to accommodate a science lab and expanded classrooms at the St. Winefride Secondary School at the cost of $85 million. Both projects are slated to be completed within five months.
“One of the consequences of more children returning to schools was that we didn’t have enough space. The whole space issue was an issue facing the Ministry for the last couple of years and it wasn’t fixed, so it faced us squarely when we came back into schools for face-to-face education,” Manickchand said. She stressed that with the construction of the additional buildings, which will expand the space to accommodate students, Guyana should be on track to achieve universal secondary education. The expansion falls in line with government plans to construct and rehabilitate schools across the country to ensure students have easy access to learning.
“Every child must be able to access a seat in a secondary school to complete their secondary education, and even as we work on achieving universal secondary education, that is, giving every Guyanese child access to this, we want to make sure that the quality you get here is the same quality you will get at a Queen’s College and The Bishops’ High and Anna Regina Secondary School and all other schools across Guyana, the quality must be the same,” she stressed.
