Spectre Construction Company, which has been awarded the $981million contract to construct the Pouderoyen Pump Station, has refused to respond to questions in relation to the award of the contract
Director of the company Dominic Yan has stated that he will not be part of any “propaganda”.
Stabroek News had contacted Yan for answers to a few questions. He was asked when the company was registered and how many contracts of a similar nature had it undertaken. He was also asked about the company’s experience in constructing pump stations, when the contract was awarded and what was the timeframe for completion.
Yan did not respond to any of the questions. Instead, he said, “I thought your interview was going in a different direction. I didn’t know that is what you wanted from the interview. I thought you wanted to know about the project. I don’t know that you are bringing politics into this. I’m sorry, I don’t want to be a part of that kind of interview. I thought you were interested in the project and not propaganda.”
The questions were put to Yan owing to the current status of large contracts being awarded and the many delays. Further, Opposition Member of Parliament Ganesh Mahipaul had written to the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) on October 9 to request an investigation into the awarding of the contract for the Pouderoyen Pump Station.
“You would have recalled that I wrote the PPC requesting an investigation on how the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) operated with reference to the award of the Pouderoyen Pump Station Contract and also the other and David Patterson wrote on the one that Tepui Group Inc got and the reason behind, it’s because the information they gave us publicly did not sync with the fact that the award has to go to the lowest most responsive bidder. But the issue that is facing this nation is greater than that one award. A lot of the awards that were made by NPTAB are coming into question on the basis of them not going to the most responsive bidder and there is a clear need for us to zoom in and zone in on how NPTAB is operating in conjunction with the procuring entities,” Mahipaul said.
Since the letter was written, the PPC has asked Mahipaul to clarify whether or not there should be an investigation into the project or NPTAB.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s National Drainage and Authority (NDIA) is listed as a procuring entity, and bids for the project were opened on June 27 of this year; it received 23 tenders.
The winning company – Spectre – has had much smaller government contracts awarded before and these include the construction of a sidewalk for the University of Guyana last year. That project had been on the agenda for many years and had been sought by students of the University of Guyana and the Cyril Potter College of Education.
With the Ministry of Local Government being the procuring entity, Spectre also won a contract last year June, to construct a two-storey building within the Eccles Health Centre and that project was pegged at $31.4 million. (Jospeh Allen)
