-as Kallco bows out
The Ministry of Public Works has advertised a $1.5 billion contract for the construction and rehabilitation of office buildings at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri following the termination of the contract with embattled Trinidad and Tobago construction firm Kallco.
Kallco is the firm that in April this year, Edghill had signalled to the Stabroek News, would be discharged from the Conversation Tree project which had stalled for months.
“It is for airline offices and in that building we have to provide bond storage for people who have concessions. That should have been built with the Kallco which was brought to an end. So it’s a re-tender,” Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill, told the Sunday Stabroek yesterday when contacted.
For a project which began in 2021 and had a four-month timeframe, Kallco Guyana Incorporated had signed a contract valued over $513.7 million for the construction of an office building at the airport. The building was slated to be joined to the existing terminal building and would have encompassed a conference room, offices for the airlines and other supporting agencies, and a duty-free bond.
It is unclear why it took over three years of waiting on the contractor who never started the project, for it to be re-tendered.
In August of this year, the Ministry of Public Works, through the Department of Public Information, had notified that it had reached an amicable agreement with Kallco Guyana Inc, which would see the defaulting contractor being paid for works completed up to this point, and the company settling all outstanding financial matters surrounding the project. That included returning the outstanding balance for work to be done on the project. The company also stood the cost of other liabilities after the project surpassed the contractual time frame and suffered prolonged delays, according to the DPI release.
According to the release, Edghill noted that the action came as a response to the project also causing significant inconvenience to residents and impeding crucial infrastructural development.
“We have light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to the Conversation Tree project. I want to officially announce that Kallco has been demobilised from the site. They have settled all of their obligations as it relates to their contract with the Government of Guyana,” he had told DPI, during an inspection of the ongoing works.
However, the invitation for bids in yesterday’s Mirror newspaper states that bidding will be conducted through a National Competitive Bidding procedure, specified by the Procurement Act of 2003. Interested bidders may obtain further information on the project, inspect the bidding document, and purchase the complete set of the bidding documents from the Ministry of Public Works Accounts Department on Fort Street, Kingston.
The bidding documents can be had for a $5,000 non-refundable fee and can be paid by cash or cheque.
The tenders will be opened on Wednesday, December 18, at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board, where they must also be submitted by 9am on the date of opening.
Meanwhile, CJIA Chief Executive Officer, Ramesh Ghir, said that the aim of the project is to provide office space for the additional airlines that have added Guyana to their routes since oil production in 2020, and to cater for the expansion of those that are here.
Ghir explained that the project entails renovation and rehabilitation works to the old offices of the airlines that fly here, as those upgrades did not form a part of the US$15 million CJIA airport project.
“Behind where there is the check-in area are offices for the airlines and those will be rehabilitated. And right next to the end, we need additional airline offices, as you would have seen, there are additional carriers added…,” Ghir told the Sunday Stabroek yesterday when contacted.
“No, the ones being rehabilitated were not a part of that [the CHEC Airport Project]”, he added.