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Ministry, Regional authorities to meet with Diamond road works contractor

Sep 28, 2010 News

The Ministry of Local Government late last week dispatched a staff member to inspect road works in Diamond. These works have come under scrutiny for failure to meet specifications.
Present to witness the inspection was Mr. Fazal Ishak, the concerned citizen who first raised the issue of the contractor’s works being less than acceptable.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Nigel Dharamlall, acknowledged that the inspection has been done and the report has been reviewed, he notes that the next step will see the Ministry meeting with the contractor through the regional authorities as intermediaries to deal with the situation as laid out in the report.
The findings of the inspection and the date of the proposed meeting were not forthcoming.
Regional Chairman, Clement Corlette, said that the contractor in question, Colin Talbot, and his project may have been overseen by the Region but he is currently working under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance.
The project under which the road works in Diamond fall, according to Corlette, is part of that Ministry’s Road Maintenance Programme. Nevertheless the meeting with the regional authorities will be going ahead as per the Permanent Secretary’s comment.
According to Dharamlall, the Ministry has an open policy in matters of this nature. He said, “We are open to complaints and (we) do our best to address them as quickly as possible.”
Last week, he pointed out that the Ministry will deal condignly with the matter, adding that if the works are inspected and are found to be deficient in meeting the contract stipulations then that contractor will be dealt with accordingly.
He said that despite contracts being administered by the regional bodies and not the Ministry itself, members of the public should insist that they get their money’s worth in these matters.
Ishak told this publication that in his complaint, it was set out in the Bill of Quantities that the contractor must square potholes and excavate roadways to an average of nine inches thick and dispose of unwanted material as directed by the Engineer.
These were only some of the tasks required of the contractor however; he also needed to supply, cut, trim, and shape, and compact clay on shoulders as directed by the Engineer and dispose of excess clay off site.
The contractor is also supposed to supply, place, shape and compact white sand/sand clay as well as supply and spread prime coat and apply white sand.
According to Ishak, he stated in his complaint that none of these requirements were met. He informed the Permanent Secretary that the contractor only scraped the old road, and at no time did the contractor excavate the road to the specified depth. It was pointed out, also, that at no time did the contractor supply and compact clay on the shoulders of the roadway.
When questioned, the contractor did not explain why he did not apply the white sand. Instead, the contractor was more interested in how the CDC Vice Chairman came into possession of the contract documents, Ishak said.

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