Close to a year after the government issued an ultimatum to the Indian supplier of the nine non-performing drainage pumps, the matter is still to be resolved, Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has said.
While touching on infrastructure plans in his budget presentation, Mustapha informed the House that he and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall are working with the manufacturer to find a solution to the issue.
“… They bought 12 pumps with fire engines. Minister Nandlall and myself are still trying to rectify that problem. We are still talking to the contractor in India to get this matter resolved. Because every single time we have heavy rainfall the pumps cannot pump the water out of the system,” the Agriculture Minister informed the House.
He sidetracked from his presentation to make the comment while informing the House of government’s plan to support drainage and irrigation for the rice sector.
This year’s budget will see the ministry engaged in the commissioning of an additional nine new mobile pumps and 100 tractor-driven pumps.
In December 2021, Nandlall had written to Apollo International seeking a resolution. In response to the government’s concerns, the Indian supplier had indicated it was ready to find an amicable solution.
A number of mechanical issues was unearthed during the installation and commissioning of the pumps and engineers from the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) concluded from their independent research that the engines were rated for fire pumps and were undersized. As such, they could not function and be used effectively for the purpose outlined in the specifications.
This situation has raised the question of the type of due diligence done by Guyana in India and when the pumps arrived here.
In a letter sent to the company by the Legal Affairs Minister and seen by this newspaper, the government asked the company to replace the “fire engines” with the required continuous engine performance.
The company was told that if it failed to meet the government’s demand the “NDIA will purchase and install the engines and deduct the cost for doing same from the balance of the contract price.”
In his presentation on the 2022 budget, Mustapha had told the National Assembly that the Minister of Legal Affairs was helping to recoup the money spent on the purchase of the unworkable pumps.
He had stated that 75 percent of the money for the procurement of the pumps was paid out under the former minister of Agriculture Noel Holder.
“… In 2020, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority was plagued with inoperable pumps and excavators even though our farmers were paying exorbitant rates,” Mustapha said to the House.
He explained that during the commissioning of the pumps “all sorts of mechanical issues” were observed. The issues ranged from parts overheating, electrical problems with the control panel, alignment difficulties, leaking gearboxes, broken drive shafts, engine back pres-suring, broken gears and gearboxes among others.
“Due to the many problems that were observed during the commissioning stage of the pumps the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority began to request from Apollo International Limited the performance curves, engine specifications and clarification of the performance of the pumps and engines supplied,” Mustapha said, but was told to contact the manufacturer, Cummins India.
“It is apposite to point out that your company, being the contracted party to design and supply the engines should have been able to provide the engine specifications upon request,” the Attorney General wrote to the company on its failure to produce the requested information.
Nandlall, in his letter to the company, highlighted that it was made aware of the mechanical issues which he pointed out stemmed from the fact that the engines were not able to perform “as per the specifications required and for the intended application envisaged.”
The mobile and fixed heavy-duty drainage pumps were procured under a Line of Credit of US$4 million from India.
Apollo International Limited was awarded a contract by the NDIA on 5th June 2018, for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of nine fixed and three mobile high-capacity drainage pumps and associated structures/ equipment.
The new fixed pumps were to be installed at Devonshire Castle and Hampton Court, on the Essequibo Coast; Den Amstel on the West Coast Demerara; Nooten Zuil, Hope, and Mora Point, Mahaicony, on the East Coast Demerara; and Rose Hall Town, Corentyne. The mobile pumps were to be installed at Ruimveldt, Sussex Street and Cowan Street. The aim was to have the pumps working to specifically aid drainage of the coast particularly at high tide. In this way, Mustapha had said, they would have been able to build capacity to 24 hours of drainage during the rainy seasons.
The NDIA’s procurement specifications required drainage pumps with the capabilities of 245 BPH at 1500 RPM for 80 cusec and 310 BPH at 1500 RPM for 100 cusec. However, they were supplied with nine engines for fire-fighting applications.
Both Mustapha and Nandlall told this newspaper that in 2015, then Chief Executive Officer of the NDIA Lionel Wordsworth had advised against the purchase of such pumps after returning from a visit to India.
Mustapha explained that it was unclear what went wrong during the procurement.
Moreover, in the letter sent to the company it was pointed out that the engineers who witnessed the testing and approved the delivery only saw the pumps functioning for 15 to 20 minutes.
“A testing of the engines for such a short duration could only show the engine performance at its prime,” Nandlall contended in his letter.
