Contractors and hubris

Sep 16, 2013 Editorial

As this newspaper reported late last week, the Minister of Public Works (MPW), Robeson Benn conceded that the system of procurement in place and used to hire contractors, may need some revision. This was in light of his expressed unhappiness over shoddy work done by several of these contractors on Government projects. Most Guyanese might have inquired in exasperation as to why it took so long for this admission, which had been so glaring for the past decades. However, better late than never.
We had noted some signals in this direction in the past few months but this is the most expansive statement by a government official on a matter that this newspaper has been exposing for years in the face of studied denials or silence from the government. Last month, for instance, the MPW terminated two contracts for road building and sea defence on the islands of Wakenaam and Leguan because of contractors’ negligence. We believe this new stance is very welcome and we would like to commend its wider application. Government’s contracts in our country constitute a significant portion of our GNP in addition to dealing with infrastructural works such as roads, bridges and wharves that significantly affect the standard of living of the ordinary citizen.
Minister Benn, however, also highlighted one key aspect of the problem: there is a handful of firms that are handed these billion dollar contracts and even though they are cited for negligence or non-performance on some contracts, they are still awarded additional contracts. This practice has long been criticised because more than anything it was seen as rewarding shoddy work. One particularly glaring instance of this insidious habit was illustrated in the case of the contractor that botched the construction of the critical Supenaam Stelling and yet continued to receive contracts, as for instance, on the just as critical widening of the East Bank Highway. Which not so incidentally, is stalled.
The Supenaam Stelling cost the government over $60 million to repair and in a serendipitous happenstance, the ramp suffered its second structural failure after the “fixing” even as the Minister was expressing his frustrations over the operations of the same contractor’s performance in the supply of stones to the construction industry. What the latest blunder revealed was that a substandard material was used in the construction of the Stelling’s ramp, which raises the question of both the design and technical supervision of the construction of the troubled facility.
Coincidentally, it was also independently revealed in the Canadian courts last week that the Canadian consultant on the project “kept a secret bribery account”. While this is a crime in Canada, the fact that it did not raise any eyebrows here indicates that such practices might be endemic and the cause of much of the substandard work done by contractors. Who will watch the watchers, when the watchers are on the take?
The matter of the supply of stone and the small number of contractors that dominate the mega government projects are not unrelated. In fact the supplier of stone acquired his quarry after receiving multi-billion government contracts to rehabilitate the sea walls for years. The secured sea wall contracts, funded by the EU, enabled him to build up his fleet of machinery which facilitated his entry into road building, conservancy maintenance, Stelling building, and every other civil engineering project one can envisage.
The latest contretemps, which seems to be the straw that broke the government’s back and its patience, is the MPW’s conviction that the contractor was manipulating the supply of stone to create an artificial shortage that forced prices to rise. With the building boom forming one of the key planks that is pushing economic growth in the country, adversely affected, the government obviously has to be concerned.
It would appear that the government’s policy of facilitating “infant industries” in both the quarrying and chicken business has resulted in the beneficiaries of the protection and assistance becoming arrogant. The government’s recent moves hopefully suggest that there might no longer be any free rides.

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Contractors and hubris

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