E.C.D. four-lane extension…Contractor moving to court for unpaid $64M

Aug 19, 2012 News

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 “I’m probably the only contractor who has asked for an audit of a project…”

The embattled contractor who is engaged in a verbal battle with the Ministry of Public Works over the abrupt termination of his contract says the attempt to sully his image and character will fail miserably.
The contractor, who heads the Falcon Transportation and Construction Services, said that “the Ministry, like a drowning rat, is trying to clutch at any straw to convince the public against the contractor.”
He is convinced that many other contractors, who are being bullied by officials of the Ministry are afraid to speak out for fear of victimization.
Minister Robeson Benn during a press briefing last week accused the contactor of fraud and non-performance with regards to the $468M East Coast Road extension contract – charges that the contractor flatly denied.
The minister said that the contractor was trying to cover for his “substandard work” by trying to tarnish the reputations of the engineers at the Ministry of Public Works.
Minister Benn insisted that he is “sticking by his engineers”.
Allegations that the engineers and other officials had demanded kickbacks from the contractor surfaced during an exclusive interview the Falcon Transportation and Contracting Services boss had with this newspaper.
“You see, all the blame goes on the contractor when it is the engineers at the Ministry who at fault. Why didn’t they stop the works for six months when they found out that I was doing bad works?” he said.
The contractor may not be far off the mark, since no lesser person than President Donald Ramotar admitted that there may be some collusion between government engineers and some contractors.
This is not the first time that the contractor has made these allegations.
He informed that in 2001 he had caused a senior official from the Ministry of Housing to be placed before the court for demanding a kickback from him and he has insisted that he will not be compromised. This position, he said, had led to the delay, by five months, of payments on the road extension contract, resulting in him suspending works on the project.
A few days later the Ministry responded by terminating the contract, a move that could lead to legal implications for the government.
“It is the contractor who made the first request to suspend the work on the first of July then they retaliated on 31st July by terminating the contract,”
According to Clause 16.2 on the contract, the contractor has the right to suspend works.
Once the termination is done, the employer who fails to pay the contractor cannot terminate the contract without settling claims.
Another clause stipulates that the Ministry should have been paying the contractor interim payments, a condition that was violated for five months.
The ministry had revealed that the contractor was paid mobilisation and advances totaling over $200M.
But in response, the contractor pointed to Clause 14.2 of the contract which indicates that mobilization advance is to be repaid when 80% of the contract sum has been exhausted.
He said that in most cases, the engineers themselves do not under the contracts that govern most of the works they award, and this has led to a number of disputes.
“That is why I’m saying that they should have a complaints committee to deal with these issues. You would see 80 percent of the contractors have problems. But it’s just like you depending on your father; if he gives you  beef today and he cannot afford and give you cassava tomorrow, you have to accept it because you cannot do better…nobody seems to care…they only use and abuse contractors,” the contractor stressed.
Last week Minister Benn disclosed that the contractor has a bad track record with regards to several other previous contracts.
These include, works on the upgrading of 1100 metres of sea defences at Turkeyen/Ogle on the East Coast of Demerara and the construction of roads, drains and culverts at Parfait Harmonie, West Bank Demerara.
However, the contractor has produced correspondence certifying the completion of both works, with some slight minor defects which were subsequently rectified within the defects liability period.
According to the contractor, the end transition was not in the original bid document and he had offered to do the variation at a cost of an additional $6.5M.
“The Ministry refused to accept our offer and closed the contract. A few months later the Ministry then went and award a contract for $40-odd million for the same project. The record is there and these are things that (Minister) Benn should know,” the contractor explained.
The Minister during last week’s press conference also referred negatively to work done by the contractor at Canal Number Two polder.
But according to the contractor, that matter seems definitely headed for the court where the government could face civil action.
He explained that while he was conducting the works there, the consultant engineer failed to properly record the work done, resulting in questions by the Ministry when the contractor submitted his certificate of valuation.
Again payment was delayed, and after one year the contractor decided to take action by advising that an audit be done.
“I’m probably the only contractor who has asked for an audit of a project…”
Even then the Ministry procrastinated and it took them three months to agree to the audit, the contractor said.
The audit confirmed the contractor’s valuation of the project ,but still the ministry refused to pay.
“It is 18 months they do not want to pay…it’s presently $64 million they have for me. After they refused to pay, we said that we will go to adjudication.
“The adjudication process which commenced in May last year was to have lasted 28 days…the first adjudicator took ill…then they took GAPE (Guyana Association of Professional Engineers) and until today it cannot be settled. We’re now going to move to the court for civil action,” the contractor declared.
The controversy has been boiling ever since the Ministry announced the termination of the East Coast road extension contract.

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