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Ramotar acted on SRKN’s recommendation to terminate Fip’s contract
… we have got high quality professional work from SRKN-Benn
Head of State Donald Ramotar was acting on the recommendations of Engineer Dr Ravi Naraine of SRKN
SRKN Boss, Dr Ravi Naraine who is now being credited with saving the project
‘Gineering when he terminated the contract that was awarded to Makeswhar ‘Fip’ Motilall of Synergy Holdings Inc.
This is according to a senior government official who said that Dr Naraine along with some other unnamed officials was credited with also rescuing the project from an even dire pitfall but he remained silent in face of public flak.
When it was revealed that it was SRKN’Gineering that had been awarded the ‘Supervising Consultant’ project managing oversight of Motilall there had been a public outcry for him to be dealt with as a stakeholder that shared blame for bungling the road.
Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn while not acknowledging that it was on SRKN’s advice that the president acted when he terminated the contract, did defend the engineer’s involvement in the project.
Benn, moments before making his Budget 2012 presentation, told this publication that “they supervised and they recommended certain actions with respect to this project which the government has taken.”
As it relates to SRKN’s involvement in the project, Minister Benn said that “we have gotten high quality professional work and engagement from SRKN.”
The Minister suggested that had its performance been less than desired then there would have been changes as in the case with Synergy Holdings.
When Motilall’s contract was terminated he vehemently denied that there was a high level of mismanagement on his part and that Dr Naraine had to assume the management of the construction project even though he was only being paid as a consultant.
The revelation that Dr Naraine had presided over the colossal failure of Motilall’s project and even approved payment certificates for the disgraced contractor had prompted Attorney-at-Law Vic Puran to offer to prosecute him for collecting money under false pretence for free.
This offer was ignored by the administration and it is only now being revealed that Dr Naraine may have saved the taxpayers a significant amount in losses when he managed the project instead of the paid contractor Motilall.
Dr Naraine’s involvement in the project had seen him coming in for criticism which may soon change as word of his true involvement in the project surfaces.
SRKN’s contract for Oversight has since been extended to September of this year.
Dr. Naraine’s company will also prepare the remaining road designs for the controversial project, something that Motilall had been tasked with.
The administration had reported that Fip Motilall’s Synergy Holdings Inc. never submitted the remaining designs which were included in his lump sum “design and build” contract.
But this publication was reliably informed that the engineer, who Motilall had secured out of Florida during the latter days of the contract, had completed the designs for Synergy Holdings Inc.
But the engineer reportedly left the country with the designs after Motilall failed to pay him some US$12,000.
Dr. Naraine’s company has also now been contracted to provide the Engineer’s Estimate for the remaining sections of the road.
It was last Tuesday that bids were opened for the completion of one section of the road when it was also unveiled that SRKN prepared the Engineer’s Estimate for that project to the tune of some $979M.
Motilall had his US$15.4M contract terminated in January last for failing to secure a Performance Bond among other shortfalls, including missing the deadlines on three occasions.
The administration has already expended several million US dollars on the project including two advances to Synergy Holdings Inc for which Motilall used to buy equipment to begin building the road.
The administration has since moved to the courts to recover over US$4.5M from Synergy Holdings as a result of the shortfalls.
Action has also been initiated to recover the US$1.5M performance Bond held by Hand in Hand.
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