-should have been finished in February this year
With an original completion date of February 2024, the new Christ Church Secondary School building is only at 35%, possibly calling into question a novel approach to construction where seven contractors were involved in the project rather than one.
When asked during a press conference on Tuesday if the Christ Church building would be ready for the September school term, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand hedged, stating that she was not an engineer and could not predict with certainty whether the project would be completed for the new term. However, she noted that some parts of the construction process involve prefabricated materials, which could be installed quickly, potentially allowing for a rapid completion.
“I’m not an engineer. But sometimes what happens is because some of it is prefab off site, you could change from 35 to 80% in a week because you brought your prefab stuff and put it on, I’m not sure what is remaining. So, I want to be careful with saying it can’t finish for September, but I’m happy the contractors are seeing the wider public is interested in how they perform and is insisting that they perform according to contract,” she said.
Christ Church children are severely inconvenienced at the moment as they are currently being accommodated at the Cyril Potter College of Education, Turkeyen.
On January 12, 2023, fire struck the Camp and Middle streets school building displacing 502 students, 39 teachers and 9 ancillary staff. The Guyana Fire Service after its investigation had concluded that the fire was an act of arson and had several points of origin.
Regarding the approach of awarding contracts to multiple companies for the same project, Manickchand on Tuesday acknowledged that it has not resulted in the anticipated speed-up of completion. However, she expressed a desire to revisit this approach, citing the potential benefits of having multiple contractors working simultaneously on different aspects of the project.
On this note, Manickchand used the example of North Ruimveldt Secondary School, where multiple contractors are needed to complete various tasks, such as painting and paving, simultaneously. She suggested that this approach could be more efficient than having a single contractor work on all aspects of the project at once. Christ Church was the first contract split up among multiple contractors.
The minister also emphasized the importance of changing the culture amongst contractors to ensure that they meet deadlines and deliver projects on time. She expressed hope that this approach would be adopted across the sector.
On June 7, 2023, Manickchand along with Chief Education Officer Saddam Hussain and other ministry officials witnessed the signing of the contracts in the ministry’s boardroom for the Christ Church building.
The seven lots and companies awarded were as follows:
Lot 1 – Construction of Sub-Structure – BM Property Investment Inc ($303,595,000)
Lot 2 – Super-Structure – Zeco Group of Services Inc. ($295,137,706)
Lot 3 – Installation of Electrical Infrastructure & Fixtures – N. Balgobin & Sons Contracting Service & Electrical Supplies ($41,938,500)
Lot 4 – Installation of Plumbing Infrastructure and Fixtures – BM Property Investment Inc. ($17,600,000)
Lot 5 – Installation of Air Conditioning Infrastructure and Units – A. Ograsein & Sons General Contracting ($10,745,000)
Lot 6 – Installation of Fire Prevention Units – A. Ograsein & Sons General Contracting ($6,759,000)
Lot 7 – Masonry and Finishing Work – Pantheon Construction Inc ($12,385,800)
At Tuesday’s press conference, Manickchand said that work on the St George’s Secondary is at 75%. The school should have been finished around January this year. In July of 2022, the school which is located along Company Path between North Road and Church Street was ravaged by fire. A month later the fire was determined to be of electrical origin, the Guyana Fire Service had said.
In June of 2023, six contracts were signed for the rebuilding of the school.
The contracts awarded were as follows:
Lot -1 Construction of Superstructure – BM Property Investment Inc. – $113,943,900.00
Lot -2 Block Works – BM Property Investment Inc. – $59,989,500.00
Lot -3 Plumbing Works – A. Ograsein & Sons General Contracting – $9,651,970.00
Lot -4 Electrical Works – Cummings Electrical Company Ltd. – $18,720,592.00
Lot -5 External Works – Superior Supplies & General Construction – $22,472,560.00
Lot -6 Finishing Works – Superior Supplies & General Construction – $29,052,600.00
Minister of Education Priya Manickchand has revealed that construction workd for Christ Church Secondary school is currently at 35% overall completion while St George’s High School is at 75% completion.
