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GPL Engineer’s estimate draws angry reaction
Construction of the foundation for the construction of a 15.6MW Wartsila Generation Plant at Kingston which engineer’s estimate would cost $120.8 million could turn out to be close to 50 per cent cheaper.
This was confirmed by Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Power and Light, Bharat Dindyal, yesterday when he explained that the estimate was done using factors that are no longer applicable.
He did say that whilst the numbers used by the engineers are not conservative and was also done at a time when the cost of piles had skyrocketed through demand, and the fact that there was a problem with cement which caused that too to increase in price.
At the time there were constructions at the Georgetown Public Hospital and other facilities and they all needed piles.
For the foundation BK International submitted a bid of $209M, which one engineer said was a case of overpricing. Courtney Benn’s bid was $72.5M whilst Nabi Construction’s bid was $62.1M and Correia & Correia’s bid was $60M. Dindyal said that the lower bids were more realistic.
He said that the engineer assembled information from the foundation that now supports the generating sets at the Kingston Power Station and foundations constructed elsewhere. The conditions that affected the prices then, do not apply now.
One critic said that the engineer had to be realistic, using prices that prevail. Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, who has assumed a watchdog role for contracts, described the engineer’s estimate as a case of him asking his brother for an estimate to build his house only to find that three other contractors offered half the price of what was received by his brother.
He said that two logical conclusions that he can come up with are either that his brother is out to downright rob him or that he is incompetent, which he doubts. The same can be said of this engineer who had done previous estimates.
Mr Lall said that he should be asked to resign or fired forthwith.
But Dindyal said that he would not want to fault the engineer’s estimate since the man used factors that may not be relevant to day but which were applicable to other foundations.
He added that the previous foundations influenced the relatively high engineer’s estimate. The foundation for the installation of the Generation plant should be completed in August.
Asked about selecting the contractor, Dindyal said that his company would now have to evaluate the contractors to ascertain who would have the necessary skilled staff, the cash flow to maintain a consistent performance on the job and the experience.
He said that there actual specifications are still outstanding since these have to be prepared by Wartsila in Finland. However, the race to finish the project warranted action that led to local contractors tendering for the contract. These tenders are being evaluated by Wartsila.
The US$18 million contract recently inked between the Power Company and Wartsila for the provision of a further 15.6 MW in generation capacity was not publicly tendered, but is the extension of a proposal Warstila made last year when it provided the 20.7 megawatt plant.
The engine that is now being sourced from Wartsila has a 20-year lifespan.
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