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It wasn’t me!

Nov 28, 2009 News

Contractor dissociates self from rehabilitation of Stewartville Road

“It wasn’t me,” said Khemraj Singh, Managing Director of Golden Star Construction Company located at La Jalousie, West Coast Demerara. Singh was at the time responding to an article published in the Wednesday edition of this newspaper under the caption ‘Less than six months later, new Stewartville road deteriorates’.
Residents of Stewartville, West Coast Demerara, had directed this newspaper to Singh’s Gap Road, La Jalousie home (the only fact in the article that had associated Singh with the construction of the road) but had given a different name for the contractor responsible for the construction of the road.
This newspaper had visited the address provided but was told that the contractor was away at the time.
Singh, during an interview with Kaieteur News yesterday insisted that he has not engaged in road works for more than two years now, adding that he has not even sought to bid for government contracts for quite some time.
He said that he has since diverted to the field of building construction. The man added that he is currently embroiled in a high-profile court battle, which was the basis for his exit from the road works arena.
However, he did name another contractor as the one who was responsible for the deteriorating Stewartville School Road. Singh said that the contractor (name withheld), who according to reports did not have equipment of his own to undertake the work, had sought to rent vehicles from him.
“He come to borrow my vehicles and I did not rent because I don’t want my things involved in that. They trying to cover up this whole thing. They got all kinds of contractors doing bad work and other people getting the blame and that’s not right.”
Singh said that based on his knowledge, the construction of the road may even be regarded as a conflict of interest as the contractor who did the work is in fact a relative of a “big one” in the region.
“I don’t blame Kaieteur News for what was carried in the newspaper but they (the authorities) trying to mislead people,” said a perturbed Singh, who related that he was even considering legal action to clear his name. “I just don’t have the time for that. I have so much running around to do and I already have matters in court. I just know that they are deliberately trying to blame me wrongfully and I had nothing to do with it.”
Residents had reported to this newspaper that six months have not elapsed since the rehabilitation of School Road at Stewartville, West Coast Demerara, and the road is fast reverting to its former unacceptable state. They had revealed that the contractor who undertook the task had admitted that he had never constructed a road before.
The residents had further revealed that they are aware that the man had to borrow equipment from a known contractor to complete the job.
One resident related that he was elated when news reached the neighbourhood that the loam road they had utilised for years would be upgraded. But from the time the work began, several residents recognised that it was a case of substandard work.
Regional Chairman, Julius Faerber, in an invited comment, said that he was not aware that the road had started deteriorating. No complaints had reached his office, he claimed.
However, he explained that since the road was rehabilitated with crusher run it was never intended to be permanent. Though unable to say at what cost the road was constructed (as he was out of the office) Faerber said that through the Region’s budgetary allocation, a decision was taken to upgrade the loam road.
By next year, he said, the School Road should be eligible for a double bitumen surface. Faerber further countered the claims of residents that the contract for the road was given to an inexperienced and unequipped contractor. He explained that the contracts are usually awarded following a tender process, which also indicates the contractor’s ability to undertake the project on which the tender is based.

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