WHAT ABOUT THE DESIGN?

May 06, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

There are certain basics that are involved in any contract. While the nature of the work, the scope of the job and the price tags may differ widely between projects, the fundamentals remain the same.
If for example, I decide to construct a building, I am required to have in place certain things. Before I sign any contract, I must first have a plan or design. In fact without this plan and design it would be impossible for me to know just what would a true estimated cost of the building. The plan tells potential contractors what works would be required and based on this design, bills of quantities and other costing can be done.
Having got a plan, the next step would be to invite contractors to submit quotations for the building. This is called bidding or tendering. Based on the bids submitted and the experience and reputation of the companies concerned, a decision is going to be made as to who is going to be selected to undertake the works.
The contractor would then have to build according to the plan. But since as a layman, the actual works require technical knowledge, it is important that there be someone who can oversee my interest in ensuring that the building is actually built to specifications and in accordance with the technical design. Ideally there should be someone, called a supervisory consultant who should be employed to oversee the works to ensure compliance with the terms of the contract, including the technical design.
In a large road construction project, the same basics follow. First there must be a design for the road project. For such a large project, there is usually an invitation for someone to design the road itself.
This is what is also expected to happen in relation to the proposed outlet channel at Hope to discharge excess water from the East Demerara Water Conservancy. Before any works commence the actual outlet channel has to be designed. There has to be invitations for the design of the outlet.
Interested bidders would then submit their designs and after a process of evaluation, the selected bid is going to be announced. The winning design would then form the basis for the invitation of tenders for the actual work.
This brings us to the US$15M road contract that was signed by the government for the construction of the access roads to Amaila Falls. Before the actual prequalification for road construction took place people expected there to be a design for this road. The contract, after all, is for a design and build project.
We understand that the survey is being conducted and that the design would be submitted within two weeks.
This brings us to the supervisory firm. For such a major project one expects that there is going to be a firm selected to supervise the road projects. Since the chosen supervisory consultant must know what he is supervising, it is expected that before bids are invited for the supervision of the works that the prequalified firms are going to be given the design plan for the road since they cannot reasonably be expected to supervise a project without the design plan.
So has there been bids as yet for a supervisory consultant and is the design plans going to be given to the prequalified firms so that they can know just what they are bidding on?
The government was quick to summon a press conference to respond to criticisms of the award of the contract. That press conference was disappointing because a number of questions remained unanswered especially in relation to the due diligence on the contractor winning the award for the road building project.
In all of this, very little mention has been made about the design of the road. The public needs to be told about this design. It also needs to be informed as to whether a supervisory consultant has been identified and if not when this is going to happen.
It is passing strange that in recent days the more questions that have been asked about this entire matter, the less answers have been volunteered. For the sake of transparency, let us hope that somebody sees the wisdom in providing the relevant information.

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