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US$840M Amaila Falls hydro-electric project …President to head special monitoring body

Sep 21, 2012 News

 

A special body comprising key players will monitor the Amaila Falls hydro-electric project, Guyana’s largest ever infrastructural project.
This disclosure was made yesterday by government’s spokesman, Dr. Roger Luncheon, yesterday, during his weekly press conference.
According to Luncheon, the special monitoring committee will be chaired by President Donald Ramotar with administrative support coming from the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL), the state-owned company which handles government assets.
Included in the monitoring body will be the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), the police, the Guyana Lands and Survey Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Explaining GRA’s presence, the Head of the Presidential Secretariat said that the project is a huge one involving hundreds of millions of dollars in equipment and other items being imported, mostly by sea. These all have to be cleared, a major challenge for GRA, and then taken to the worksite at the falls in Region 8.
According to the official, the idea is for government and the major stakeholders to keep an “eye on the ball”.
Responding to media questions whether the special monitoring body will include Parliamentary representations, the official admitted that there was none. He did not rule out the possibility of the National Assembly establishing its own special committee.
Last week, government announced that it had made a major headway with the signing of the
Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) agreement between Sithe Global and China Railway First Group (CRFG).
Financial closure for the massive project is expected within nine months with construction set to start shortly after, the developers disclosed earlier this week.
The Amaila Falls Hydro Inc. (AFH), the local operating company formed to manage the 165-megawatt project to be situated in Region Eight, also indicated that the access roads leading to the site will have to be completed before construction begins.
The roads were faced with major delays after the first contractor, Synergy Holdings Inc., failed to meet deadlines and the contracts were severed in January by government and awarded in parts to several other construction firms.
The company said that it will deliver hydro energy in three and half years or 42 months.
The hydro project has been marred with questions of cost, access road construction delays and the suitability of contractors.
The EPC agreement is valued at US$506M.
Sithe Global said that the signing assured that the US$840M price tag will not move upwards because of commodity price adjustments.
Yesterday, Luncheon also disclosed that government has hired a fleet of equipment to the tune of $30.18M to carry out construction works on the Amaila Falls access roads from the Linden to Lethem Road to the Essequibo River.
The equipment will supplement the current fleet being used by the Ministry’s Force Account Unit that is responsible for that lot.
Recently, the Ministry was ordered by the High Court to return a number of vehicles owned and once used by Synergy Holdings Inc (Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall) to execute works on the stretch.
However, the majority of the equipment seized by Government was non-functional.
Government on January 12, last, announced the cancellation of the US$15.4M road contract it signed with Synergy Holdings Inc, headed by Motilall. The termination came when Motilall failed to secure a performance bond and meet deadlines.

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