Awardee not required to comply with local tax laws - Brassington

Awardee not required to comply with local tax laws – Brassington

Apr 14, 2010 News

One condition for a local contractor to qualify to secure a contract is to satisfy all the tax requirements.
Synergy Holdings Inc. head, Makeshwar Motilall, has failed to satisfy a tax requirement in the United States. Winston Brassington of the Privatization Unit and also of the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), told this newspaper that this requirement is not applicable to Synergy Holdings Inc. in this instance, given that Motilall is a foreigner.
Synergy Holdings Inc. was awarded the US$15 million contract for the first phase of the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Power Project (AFHEP) based on the fact that it submitted the lowest tender to NICIL
Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon when asked about the award of the contract to Synergy Holdings during a recent press briefing said that this decision was made via a public tender, done within the provisions of the Procurement Act. He said based on the submission of the standard bid documents, Synergy Holdings was successful in acquiring the contract.
While Brassington effectively states that the company is not required to comply with the Laws of Guyana, the Procurement Act which is in place to in part, ascertain value for money, states that a contractor must, “possesses or has access to the technical competence, financial resources, equipment and other physical facilities, managerial capability, reliability, experience, and reputation, and the personnel, to perform the contract; that it has legal capacity to enter into the contract; that it is not insolvent, in receivership, bankrupt or being wound up, its affairs are not being administered by a court or a judicial officer, its business activities have not been suspended, and it is not the subject of legal proceedings for any of the foregoing; that it has fulfilled its obligations to pay taxes and social security contributions of its employees; that it has not, and its directors or officers have not, been convicted of any criminal offence related to its professional conduct or the making of false statements or misrepresentations as to its qualifications as to its qualifications to enter into a procurement contract within a period of 10 years preceding the commencement of the procurement proceedings, or has not been otherwise disqualified pursuant to administrative suspension or debarment proceedings in this or other jurisdictions over the last three years.”
Started in 2001 as a real estate developer, the company is not accredited with the Better Business Bureau but there have been no formal complaints or Government action against the business.
However this is not the same with the company’s President, Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall, who owes the United States of America taxes to the tune of some $26,000. Last year, Motilall had two properties facing the auction block as a result of the non-payment of taxes, according to reports.
Checks on the status of the payment of his taxes, yesterday, found that one property which was on the chopping block last year is still listed as delinquent as it relates to unpaid taxes.
This information is publicly available on the official website for the Palm Beach County Tax Collector in the State of Florida USA (www.pbc.gov.com).
The listing as a delinquent status is also on that website.
The tax problems for Motilall first surfaced in the Daily Business Review which had documented a list of persons delinquent on real estate taxes for Palm Beach County that were not paid before April 1, 2009.
Motilall controls the Synergy Holdings Inc which, recently, was awarded a US$15M contract for the construction of the roads and dams for the Amaila Falls Hydro Electricity Project.
Synergy Holdings’ contract is for the upgrade of approximately 85 kilometres of existing roadway and the design and construction of approximately 110 kilometres of new roads.
Following the announcement of the contract to Synergy Holdings Inc there has been a spate of letters questioning whether the company was even in a position to execute the works.

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Awardee not required to comply with local tax laws – Brassington

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Awardee not required to comply with local tax laws – Brassington

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