Ministry blames Walter Willis for overpaying contractor

Mar 21, 2014 News

Government’s chief structural engineer, Walter Willis, was yesterday blamed for the overpayment of just over $1.2M to a contractor who executed works on the Plaisance Market Tarmac.

Govt. Engineer,
Walter Willis

In stark contrast however, the Contractor, Compustruct Engineering, is claiming that it was only overpaid $62,110.
The revelations were made when Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development, Collin Croal, appeared before the Public Accounts Committee to answer for the overpayments which were flagged by the Auditor General, in his 2011 report.
The Public Accounts Committee is chaired by A Partnership for National Unity’s Carl Greenidge and the only other members present for yesterday’s meeting were Keith Scott, and Trevor Williams of the Alliance For Change.
Croal told the Committee that, “our position is clear, an overpayment did take place and so we have indicated that we are clear that he has to repay $1.2M.”
He said however that the contractor has since submitted to the Ministry a reevaluation of the overpayment and has determined that he was only paid an extra $62,110.
Greenidge sought to query from the Permanent Secretary how exactly the overpayment was made in the first place.
According to Croal, the project was managed by Willis and he signed off on the project.
Greenidge further sought to find out if the contractor was paid in advance or whether he was paid following an inspection.
Croal responded that the query came up after the final payment that was made after an inspection.
An engineer within the Office of the Auditor General’s Office, who was also on hand for the hearing, told the Committee that when they inspected the site as part of the audit they initially came up with an overpayment to the tune of $2.3M.
A subsequent re-inspection of the site along with Willis saw the overpayment being revised downward to $1.2M
The engineer advised that Willis had caused them to re-measure

Permanent Secretary, Colin Croal (centre) appearing before the Public Accounts Committee yesterday.

locations not considered by the Audit Office.
Williams sought to find out how the Ministry would force the contractor to comply, but was advised by Greenidge that this is a difficult measure for the Ministry. He pointed out that it is a situation where the Ministry had certified a project and already paid out the money.
He said what the experience would in fact do is serve as a warning to all other Permanent Secretaries’ personnel responsible for public expenditure to put in place proper measures to ensure value for money.
According to Greenidge, “once there is an overpayment it is difficult for the Ministry to get the contractors to reimburse what was overpaid.”
He suggested that the solution is quite simply to not overpay in the first place.