AFC slams Amaila Falls road contract as con job

Mar 09, 2012 News

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-considering impeachment for corrupt public officials

The Alliance For Change (AFC) is currently examining the country’s laws to explore the possibilities of impeaching government officials for wrongdoings.
Speaking during the party’s weekly press briefing on Wednesday, Moses Nagamootoo, a former top executive member of the ruling People’s Progressive Party (PPP), also signaled a hard line stance on corruption by his party.
The party specifically referred to the Amaila Falls Road Project with senior official Nagamootoo describing it as a con job pulled on Guyana.
“We are looking at the law to see where impeachment proceedings can be brought against government officials. Not only the restitution of money but that they feel the full brunt of the law where it provides and that they go to jail. We are uncompromising on this.”
The official was at the time commenting on the latest development of the embarrassing project in which revelations indicate that Synergy Holdings Inc, the contractor, did not even complete designs of the network of roads he was contracted to build.
The US$15.4M ($3B) project was “awarded” to Synergy Holdings almost two years ago in controversial circumstances. Its completion is key to a US$800M hydro-electric project that government is hoping to build at Amaila Falls, Region Eight. Government had stoutly defended the award of the contract, saying that the company, based in the US, is experienced in road building although evidence was not provided.
Earlier this year, government pulled the contract from Synergy and has since awarded it in sections, to three other contractors.
Earlier this week, government’s Senior Engineer, Walter Willis, disclosed that for a larger part, owner of Synergy Holdings, Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall, never completed the designs for a large section of the project. The project entailed the upgrade of approximately 85 kilometers of existing roadway and the design and construction of approximately 110 kilometers of new road.
Motilall, according to Willis, did not complete the design for what is known on the project as Section 2B—a section that lies within the Toolsie Persaud Holdings and which was part of an existing roadway. This section led to the waterfront area crucial for the transport of heavy equipment to the project site. Further, Motilall also failed to design the latter sections of the road—Section 6 and Section 7—the final stages of the road and which lie within virgin forest. These two sections form part of the 110 kilometers of new roads. The government must now design these sections.
The contract was awarded on condition that Motilall would design and construct the road.
The terms of the agreement stipulated that he would complete the works within 18 months of being awarded the contract. However, there were delays in the start up, first, to allow Motilall to procure the equipment and then, to secure a Performance Bond.
The government announced the award of the contract to Motilall on March 26, 2010. Synergy Holdings was given the first notice to proceed on October 5, 2010 for some sections of the road, while the green light for the other section through virgin rainforest was given on January 11, last year.
Meanwhile, Motilall has collected some US$8 million of the contract fee. The government has however seized his equipment and has fined him US$120,000 as liquidated damages for each day he failed to procure the Performance Bond.
Nagamootoo made it clear that the project is engaging the attention of the AFC, which improved to seven Parliamentary seats in the November 28th General and Regional elections.
“…in fact, this is even more bizarre that we are talking about this road to nowhere and suddenly we find we didn’t even have a design. We didn’t even have a road map. We didn’t know where we were going, in fact, but we were building a road.”
AFC, like all decent Guyanese, is looking at probity and accountability but “we are not fighting down the government. We are not calling people, irresponsibly, thieves and hustlers. We are saying if you have to spend taxpayers’ money…Guyanese money…public funds… then you must be careful and have accountability.”
The Parliamentarian insisted that AFC is not in the mood to tolerate the grandstanding of the PPP/C anymore.
“…and you know what we saw playing out in the last session of the Parliament when you are asking questions and you were getting dummy answers and dumb answers…that will not work anymore.”
According to the AFC official, government, to save face, has now moved to seize equipment belonging to Synergy and forfeiting outstanding money, among other things, for what has turned out to be a “total failure of a contract”.
“This was a con job pulled off on the Guyanese people…”
Nagamootoo said that with widespread poverty in Guyana among womenfolk, and monies going into the wrong pockets, AFC is insisting that accountability becomes a watchword.
“We are not amused by the attacks we get. In fact, we are looking at every time a government official opens his or her mouth, we feature in their minds… and in their heads… and we are grateful to them for bringing us to the minds of the Guyanese people. We are an important natural player and we will continue to raise the muck of corruption and the theft of the people’s money.”

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