Eight unremoved Health Ministry containers likely “to be auctioned”

Feb 18, 2015 News

Eight Ministry of Health containers that are believed to have been at the John Fernandes Terminal Transit Shed since last August could be up for auction by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). The containers said to be holding “hospital supplies” were documented in the Official Gazette dated Saturday February 14. The items are to be auctioned off because the consignee (government) failed to remove the goods within the stipulated time.
GRA’s Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur said that it is a requirement under the law to dispose of the goods if the consignee fails to uplift it. He said that the items identified as “unentered goods” has to be gazetted for the relevant stakeholders to make any queries if necessary.
This is to say that the items slated for auction may have been listed as unentered previously, but may very well have been cleared and uplifted by the consignee at a later date. In this light, to feature the items in the gazette gives the consignee a chance to clarify whether transactions to remove the goods were completed.
However, Sattaur was unable to say at the time whether the transaction between the agency and the Health Ministry was completed. He said that the records would have to be checked as to whether the transaction was completed, but for now, the focus is on giving the consignee a chance to regularize any outstanding issues.
Sattaur confirmed that until the agency is contacted and told that the items have been removed from its current location and all transactions finalized, it would be safe to say that the items ordered by the Ministry are still sitting on the wharf and would be auctioned off.
Sattaur suggested that the items within the container are not medical drugs supplied from now bankrupted Indian company, Surendra Engineering, which was awarded a US multi-million dollar contract to build the country’s first Specialty Hospital.
Surendra, which was fired and then sued by the government last year for failing on the Specialty Hospital project, also built the underperforming US$12.8 million Enmore Packaging Plant, and also had a US$4 million contract for the still to be completed supply of 14 drainage pumps ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture since 2009. The company also filed for liquidation late last year and this action brought uncertainty in the government’s legal action to recover over US$4million.
Should the auctioning of the Ministry’s equipment occur, it will signal another instance of wastage. Mismanagement of state resources is among the damning accusations against the current government which is also marred by claims of corruption and cronyism. There has been no talk about the continuance of the Specialty Project and the return of cash to the government, especially since the India-based company cannot be located to honour the court ruling which awarded damages to the government.
The Specialty Hospital project garnered much controversy and like many other government-projects failed to earn the support of the combined opposition.
In September last year the admission by Government that they were cutting ties with Surendra Engineering Corporation Limited vindicated the opposition’s worry about the project, the Leader Brigadier (rtd) David Granger had stated.
He stated at the time that A Partnership for National Unity had taken the position that contract arrangements with the Indian company were abnormal and irregular, thus, there was no support.
Alliance for Change member Trevor Williams had questioned, “How could a spare-parts supplier who cannot even get that job right, get a contract to design, build and equip a specialty hospital? It is mind boggling”.

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Eight unremoved Health Ministry containers likely “to be auctioned”

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