Minister within the Ministry of Public Works, Deodat Indar on Friday inspected the ongoing rehabilitation of the Leguan stelling.
The project that restarted on December 16, 2022 has so far yielded 1620 sq. ft. of beams and other components of the platform structure, with 22,390 sq. ft. remaining to be executed by June of this year, a release from the Ministry of Public Works said.
S. Maraj Contracting Sevices is spearheading the project.
On December 25th 2022, Stabroek News reported that four years on, rehabilitation of the ferry stelling is still to be completed and the original contractor – who had been sued by the state – has now been given another six months to get the job done.
The company, S. Maraj Contracting Services, and the Assuria Insurance Company, were sued by the state over incomplete works on the stelling, which has been under construction since 2019. The Transport and Harbours Department (TH&D), as the procuring agency, during litigation, engaged the contractor in negotiations and both were recently able to arrive at a settlement. “Like any other litigation there was room for negotiations and there was a settlement. Now the contractor should complete the stelling on terms and conditions that were set as result of those negotiations….” Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill said. He told this newspaper that as a public officer and minister, he is embarrassed at the handling of the project.
“I am embarrassed at the state of this project. It is one that was inherited but it was one I want to bring to conclusion,” he said. The minister in a telephone interview explained that his government, as much as it was disappointed by the slothful work, was mandated to find a solution to bring relief to the people of the Essequibo River island of Leguan.
“We are not in any way as a government, happy about this contract. This was a contract that we frowned upon. It was bad from the very start and mishandled… But the reality is, the people are suffering and government money is spent and tied up. We had to find a way of settling this matter and get a proper stelling delivered to the people of Leguan,” he posited.
The Public Works Minister had a contrary view when asked if the contractor should bear some blame for the delay in the completion of the stelling. He stated that no one will accept the blame for a project such as this. In the minister’s view, the project was corrupt. “It was a corrupt contract… A corrupt transaction where things were deliberately omitted from the clause. You can imagine a man was supposed to drive piles, wooden piles and when he had to start driving the wooden piles he said he aunt have to supply it? The contract requires piles and he said the word supply aint deh in the contract,” Edghill pointed out before he questioned “is not [being] left out deliberately for him? It is lawless like that we are talking about… he wanted to be paid for the piles or have it supplied.”
