The Ministry of Public Works has written the national tender board and will also notify the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) why it no longer wishes sacked contracting firm, N&S General Engineering Contracting Services, to undertake any of its other projects.
“As for bidding again? Not at the Ministry of Public Works. We have written the Tender Board indicating that this is [an errant] contractor and he should not be engaged in works at the ministry. Any other ministry wants to take him, fine, but not here. I am not here to curry favour with anybody and there are rules of engagement,” Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill told the Sunday Stabroek during an interview.
Sounding a warning to other prospective contractors across the country, Edghill said that they should take heed because the same fate awaits them should they default on contracts awarded.
“I would expect that everyone listen to me because this is a warning. Every time we deal with a contractor, they have to understand that this will come their way if they behave the same. I went to Mahdia and dealt with the man with the half road and I think everybody understands.
“You cannot give me half a road if I paid you for a whole road. You have to get my work done. I have to come to the Parliament. I have to answer the questions. I have to account for the money that I get and answer to the people of Guyana for what I did on their behalf with their money,” he added.
He said that personally, his ministry’s works are reflective of him and he will have to also answer for it “when I go to the polls the next time…I am very serious about my work,” he stressed.
N&S General Engineering Contracting Services won a contract to construct 1 km of road into El Dorado – a continuation of the Moleson Creek to El Dorado Road project which is vital for the construction of the planned Corentyne Bridge.
The company’s head, Shazad Sattaur, 36, has declined to speak on the issue.
Edghill disclosed that the contractor had uplifted a mobilisation advance of $22 million some eight months ago but failed to start any sort of work at the location.
The company was called in by the ministry and given several notices about not starting the contract, but to no avail.
“When he wasn’t performing, he got a letter of poor performance from the ministry, highlighting to him that ‘you are not performing’. Time is passing etcetera. This gentleman got several letters. The residents of the community would have been complaining. Here it is one section of the road is completed by another contractor and his section nothing has happened. They are still in mud, almost to their waist sometimes. I did call him into my office, we had discussions about his poor performance; about what could be done to ensure we get the programme delivered. More than anything else, we want our roads to be built. Terminating the road is a last resort,” he said.
The contractor, according to the minister, “indicated that he was having trouble getting materials.”
And when he did, Edghill said that the ministry called a Berbice supplier and arranged for the contractor to get all the materials needed, with the understanding that the supplier would be paid directly by the ministry from the contractor’s sums for the contract.
“He already had money – the mobilization advance – we said we will pay directly from the contract sum to the supplier. He agree to that but went back to Berbice and nothing,” he added.
Fed up with complaints from citizens and checks by the ministry on the progress of works, Edghill said he decided to visit but the contractor failed to show on the day of the visit. “He knew I was visiting and he was not there.”
It was during that visit that the minister announced the sacking of the company.
He explained that while he orally informed the company, certain formal steps had to be triggered and these were done, where the procuring agency informed of the termination and notified the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB).
NPTAB was also written to by the ministry, explaining the reason for the termination and requesting that the company not be given any other contract for that ministry.
Debarring
The Sunday Stabroek reached out to NPTAB on the issue. The NPTAB said that while the PPC is the regulatory agency to direct debarring of contractors, the fact that the company now has to its name the abandonment of a project, it would not be recommended by evaluators even if it bids again.
“One of the criteria in the bid documents is that [there be] no terminated or abandoned projects [in the company’s records. So the evaluators will see that they had a terminated contract and not recommend them,” the NPTAB said in a response.
It is unclear however, if evaluators of this contract were privy to the fact that the contractor had outstanding contracts with other agencies or regions. However, in the bidding documents, companies are required to outline their experience.
Edghill said that he and other ministers are now aware that the company has outstanding contracts in other areas. “At Cabinet we don’t operate as silos, so we know who is where because one contractor must never be overloaded with work in one sector and then be coming for more,” he said.
When the contract was terminated, Edghill had said that the remaining sums were available and steps will be taken to select another contractor so that the project is “delivered to the people.”
“We are not going to be in a mode of any contractor doing work … when he feels to do it. When you finish something somewhere else then you going to come and do this, when you get time when you get money. That is not the way we do it.”
He also pointed out that when contractors bid for a project they must show that they have the equipment, finance, and personnel to execute the project awarded to them although they might have other ongoing projects at the time.
“This is eight months, a contractor has received $22 million of taxpayers’ money, he could have invested, gone to Miami, and gone to wherever he wants to go and the farmers in this community have not benefitted from this”, Edghill lamented.
He assured that the process to find a replacement has begun and the ministry has invited, by way of restricted tendering, “six or seven contractors to bid for the completion of this job.”
“Restricted tendering is catered for in the Procurement Act. We have gotten the approval of the PPC,” he added while informing that the ministry was given the approval by NPTAB to proceed.
