PPP Govt. encouraged contractors to abuse the tender process

Sep 24, 2015 News

– Says calculating tactics of contractors a travesty – Harmon

The coalition Government seems to be at its wit’s end with the anticompetitive practices and calculating tactics of some contractors who were awarded major government projects under the previous administration.

The government insists that this sort of lawlessness would be wiped out. It intends to bring a fresh approach to this area by scrutinizing all projects.

It will also be implementing a special committee that would employ strict penalties when substandard work is detected.

Communicating this sentiment to the media yesterday during a post Cabinet Press briefing was Minister of State, Joseph Harmon.

He said that Cabinet had “very firm” words about the manner in which the contracts were executed under the previous administration.

Harmon said that it was discovered that contract sums were being “extended and extended” beyond a sum that was actually catered for in the award of the contract.

He said that this was due to the fact that some contractors were deliberately ‘underbidding” to win the contracts only to return on numerous occasions with excuses to justify the need for increases.

The Minister of State said, “People were bidding low knowing full well that they would come later on for variations so in a process like that, persons who could have done the work, they are actually cheated out of the contracts because some persons deliberately bid low and the contracts were awarded to the lowest bidder.”

He said that this is exactly what happened with the Kato Primary School in Region Eight. He noted that Cabinet had before it this week, a request for the extension for the consultancy service for works on the School.

Harmon said, “I think it started at $500M and it is almost $1B now. And it is still not finished. Now, the company that is supervising the work of that contract, they have actually now come back to Cabinet to ask for an extension which will cost another $4.2M on the construction services that are being provided. These are the people who are actually overseeing the contract…”

The Minister of State said that Cabinet gave some clear instructions to Minister of Education, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine, under whose ministry this matter falls.

Harmon said that Dr. Roopnaraine is expected to call in the Consultancy Firm and “have some very firm words with them to the effect that we will not tolerate any further extensions because it is basically becoming a travesty the way these matters are being dealt with.”

Kaieteur News subsequently asked the Minister of State about what his government is prepared to do to bring a halt to this type of anticompetitive practice in the tender system.

Harmon noted that the case of the Kato Primary School is a microcosm of what was happening with regard to contracts on a wider scale and emphasized that government is making moves to tighten up on this.

He said that Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, Business Minister Dominic Gaskin and Finance Minister, Winston Jordan, have been tasked with preparing new guidelines for contractors. He said that this would basically brief contractors as to what is required of them when tendering for a government contract and the penalties which they can anticipate for breaches of the award of those contracts.

In the mean time, Harmon said that the administration will scrutinize all of the existing contracts for areas of default, shoddy work and matters of that nature.

Harmon said that Patterson has also undertaken to provide what might be called an “Inspectorate Division” which will examine government funded projects, so that the administration can be satisfied that the country is getting value for money in the award of contracts and their execution.

Construction of the Kato Secondary School came as a result of the growing hinterland population in that community. Parents, students and teachers had complained of overcrowding and lack of access to secondary education in Region Eight.

The school is expected to cater for children from communities including Kato, Kurukubaru, and Monkey Mountain.

The previous administration had said that the main structure of the school was estimated to cost $780M, but the additional cost of furnishing, lighting, fencing, and security was expected to take the final figure to around $1B.

There were high hopes of the school opening in January but this obviously did not occur.

The Kato project is one of the largest infrastructural projects embarked upon by the Ministry of Education which was headed by Former Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand.

A $728,263,485 contract was signed in December 2012 with Kares Engineering Inc., a construction firm. The work commenced April 2013 and was slated to be completed in April 2015.

The previous Government insisted that all was above board with the cost and that the region needed the school as there was severe overcrowding. The project had been classified as a “super structure” that will house the secondary school with adjoining administrative block, teachers’ quarters and students’ dormitory complete with dining area, lobby, sleeping area, laundry room, and accommodation for dorm wardens, kitchen, and sanitary facilities.

The school is slated to accommodate 12 classrooms, industrial arts department, canteen, two science laboratories, computer laboratory, home economics and agriculture departments, facilities for differently-able persons, visual arts, sanitary blocks, two multi-purpose rooms, library and research area.

The ministry had said that the location of the school in Kato was chosen because of its proximity to a nearby river that flows into a waterfall that will be used to construct a hydroelectric project that will power the community and by extension, the school.

The engineer’s estimate for the project was $680,200,431. Kares Engineering’s lowest bid was chosen.

Justifying the cost, the Ministry had said that the contracting firm has utilised timber, sand and stone from within Region Eight. However, cement and other hardware had to be transported by trail and air from Georgetown into Kato by the contractor.

“I don’t know if you would have visited it, but I think if you are given the opportunity to see how remote the area is and how difficult it would be to get all of the necessary elements in; I think that my discussions with our Buildings Manager really suggest to me, that this is quite a feat getting a secondary school built in that area and getting everything in,” said Chief Education Officer, Olato Sam, in responding to questions about the project in August.