By Joseph Allen
Two months after the Bamia Primary School should have been completed under a controversial contract given to entertainers and sportsmen, the building has no roof and the RDC says it would have terminated the deal if the decision was up to it.
Despite being some two months past the schedule for the full completion of the Region Ten school, the contractor – St8tement Investment Inc – told Stabroek News that works are still progressing and are expected to be completed within the next “couple of months”.
The construction project was given a 20-month construction lifespan in November of 2021 and was expected to be completed in July this year.
St8ment Investment Inc was awarded the $346 million contract for the construction of the school.
The company, whose principals are Rawle Ferguson and Kerwin Bollers of Hits and Jams Entertainment along with Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major and Kashif Muhammed of the Kashif and Shanghai football tournament, was formed just a few months prior to bidding for the project and had no proven construction background.
The project is being undertaken under the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and in July of 2021, the bids were opened. Four companies – Bulkan Timber Works Inc ($349,595,065), St8ment Investment Inc ($346,327,748), Orin’s Supreme Enterprise ($348,726,772), and A Nazir & Son Contracting & General Supplies ($340,549,671) – tendered for the project.
St8ment, with the second-lowest bid, received the contract which was signed by the principals of the company and Regional Executive Officer (REO) Dwight John
Stabroek News visited the construction site last week and also contacted one of the company’s representatives, Kerwin Bollers, who said that while the company was well aware that they are months behind, work is progressing and the school’s construction is expected to be completed within months.
“The work is progressing rapidly. We are a little behind time, however, we are going to be finished within another couple of months”, he said.
In explaining the delay, Bollers noted that the sourcing for what is needed has been a challenge and also time.
“We had some challenges with materials and stuff like that, as you know it’s all the way in Linden, so, in terms of having materials and time and stuff like that and having to be supplied with materials from so many places in Linden and some of the resources we had to source as far as Parika. So, we have been having some challenges but we are pushing ahead”, he said.
Bollers said that their setbacks are not unique, as most of the construction companies are faced with difficulty sourcing materials and hiring the labour force needed.
But despite the setbacks, he said that some 70% of the work has been done and before the end of the year, the project is expected to be completed.
When Stabroek News visited the construction site, the roof of the building had not been installed and no internal work had been done. The compound floor structure was also not done, and limited electrical installation was in evidence. The water system is yet to be installed and the compound still remains without a perimeter fence.
Given the pace at which the project is going, reports are that the project period was extended to November 2023.
Back in September 2022, Stabroek News spoke to the RDC of Region Ten, the body which has some level of oversight of the project, and it expressed disappointment at the pace at which the project was going.
That disappointment has now been amplified, Chair-man of the Region 10 council, Deron Adams said last week.
“I’m disappointed in the manner in which the school project is currently executed by the contractor, who continues to lag behind. We should have already handed over that school in July of this year. Where it is at now is not reflective of the money they would have received. We should have already seen the roof on, maybe classrooms being partitioned, et cetera, and possibly handing over.”
Excuses
As it relates to the issues raised, the RDC Chair said that excuses are not sufficient since other contractors in the regions aren’t complaining of those issues.
“How there are no other contractors, the Brazilians, who are doing the bigger project are not complaining about road building materials, whether its stone, sand whatever it is, what are they complaining about? How is everyone else completing their project. This is the only project that has a problem with logistics and building materials finding. In the capital you are seeing massive hotels going up and being completed and they are not complaining, why only this project has an issue? I will not buy that”, Adams declared.
The Chair said that all the contractor has to do is come clean on the matter and let them work along with the RDC to get the project completed.
“We were concerned from the initial stage that this contractor was not experienced enough to get this project of such magnitude – 300 and something million – they have received over 100 million and lagging behind, which means that we will be forced as a region to write the Minister of Finance, which the REO would have to do for an inclusion project for several other schools maybe to benefit from the funding so that we will not be blamed for sending back monies to the Consolidated Fund; that doesn’t happen under my watch. Every penny must be spent in this region when the money is allocated for the people, but when you have friends, family, and favourites being awarded projects; this is what you have to deal with”, he lamented.
The RDC Chair said also that their hands are even tied with the Inter-American Development Bank since they have applied for funding for the Wisroc School due to overcrowding and with the current uncompleted project, the picture is not making the regional administration look good.
Adams said that the only reason they have been giving the contractors some sort of lenience is because of the project’s importance and not about politics but if it was up to the region the contract would have been terminated.
