By Antonio Dey
Public Accounts Commit-tee (PAC) Chairperson and Member of Parliament (MP) Jermaine Figueira and MP Juretha Fernandes are requesting that the Auditor General treat the construction of the controversial Bamia Primary School as a matter of public importance.
Their request came yesterday after Stabroek News directed them to its article on the project not being flagged or documented in the 2022 Auditor General’s (AG) report, though contractors for the Bamia Primary School in Region 10 have missed several deadlines since 2021.
There was no mention of the Bamia Primary School under the Ministry of Local Government which launch-ed the project in November 2021 or Region 10 which has been exercising some oversight of it.
Figuiera said that while the PAC is alarmed at the matter it cannot direct the Audit Office and the Auditor General to insert an item that requires public scrutiny in its report, but the parliamentary body can request that this matter be treated with urgency.
“It is a matter of concern for us [as members of the PAC] because this is a matter that grabbed the public’s attention and it is a matter that I was one of the persons in the community of Linden who would have publicly expressed my dissatisfaction at how this project is being undertaken”, the PAC chairperson told Stabroek News.
He added “Now that the Auditor General’s report is out and this has not been highlighted then the Public Accounts Committee – and when I say that I mean myself and members from the opposition who make up that committee – will request that the AG does a performance audit on the project, because it is indeed a subject for scrutiny”.
Figueira noted that the Audit Office is an independent organization that is guided by its constitutional obligations to examine financial matters that are deemed to be important, and the PAC cannot impede the work of this body.
“It behoves us as members of the PAC to bring to the AG’s and Audit Office’s attention matters of national importance but we cannot demand that he does so, however, we are hoping that he does”, the Member of Parliament posited.
Witness
Meanwhile, PAC Mem-ber Juretha Fernandes said that the Audit Office on the record had said that residents of Linden who witness sub-standard work being carried out on the school are free to go into the entity and file complaints.
That the project is mired in controversy but has not been flagged or mentioned in the AG’s report is disappointing and alarming, Fernandes said.
The Alliance For Change spokesperson on Finance noted that the project does not have to meet its completion date for the audit office to do its due diligence.
She reasoned that since the project has been riddled with criticisms, it should be treated as a matter of public importance.
Fernandes like Figueira said that there are many projects mired in controversy that Government members of the PAC are overlooking.
She noted that while the committee is currently stuck with examining the 2019 Auditor General’s report she and other members will take this matter up for discussion at the next PAC meeting.
Fernandes remains of the view that the government is deliberately cancelling PAC meetings to evade matters such as the controversial Bamia Primary School.
She however made it clear that the opposition will continue to press the governing side of the PAC for answers until they get substantive responses.
Stabroek News yesterday visited the Audit Office on High Street to ask why the project was not itemized in the AG’s 2022 report.
This newspaper was told by an employee of the Audit Office attached to the Human Resources Department to email its requested information to the entity’s secretariat.
This was done as instructed but up to press time, no response was forthcoming concerning the subject.
Extremely disappointed
Meanwhile, Region 10 Chairman Deron Adams is extremely disappointed that the new year is here and the school has not been completed.
He lamented that the incomplete school will negatively affect the region’s requested budget which is geared to cater for other development projects in Linden and other communities in Region 10.
“As you know when you cannot complete your projects on time, the technical persons at the Ministry of Finance will use that …to justify …why it should not increase budgetary allocations in your region”, Adams said.
Adams recommended that the government terminate the services of the company hired to do the stalled project.
‘I don’t have confidence in the contractor and with that being said the government should remove this contractor from the project”.
“We are expected that this project be completed during the first quarter of this year because it is long overdue and that happens when you get friends and family involved in projects such as these it is not done properly”, he remarked.
Stabroek News on December 4th, 2023 reported that the construction project was given a 20-month lifespan in November of 2021 and was expected to be completed in July of 2023.
However, since the contractors were not able to finish the project on time, a new deadline was set based on an explanation and request by the contractor.
The new deadline was given as November 16, 2023, and as it stands, the project is not yet ready to be handed over to the Administrative Region.
St8ment Investment Inc the company behind the project was controversially 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 before bidding for the project and had no proven construction background.
That in itself should have been a subject of continuing comment by the Auditor General’s Report.
The Auditor General’s Report has been criticized in the past for leaving out controversial projects and focusing on many trivial and immaterial matters.
The project comes 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.
Stament, with the second-lowest bid, was awarded the contract which was signed by the principals of the company and Region 10 Regional Executive Officer (REO) Dwight John.
Since the beginning of the project and up to its current stage, a large percentage of the money was given to the company to complete the work.
