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Dipcon cash crunch…Road workers crowd office to demand overdue payments
Dozens of disgruntled sub-contractors, engineers, operators and labourers yesterday assembled at Dipcon’s Non Pareil Road, Coldingen Industrial estate office, to demand money they say is owed to them for some five months.
Dipcon is one of the several road contractors who were assigned to the East Bank of Demerara four-lane highway. Dipcon also had a contract to do work on a section of the East Coast Demerara four-lane expansions.
Workers in the office yesterday agitating for their payments.
Dipcon reportedly encountered problems from the rising costs of materials and the delays in removing utilities from the area. The company had also admitted to owing the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA).
According to the workers, they have been making repeated visits to the office in order to be paid, but would always be told to come back at a later time. One sub contractor related that they would return again and again, only to be deferred.
The workers called for the Government to get involved in the issue, even if it means a blacklist against the company.
Another worker, identified as ‘Ricky’ Charamchulai, alleged that the company dismissed him late last month without due process or the benefit of a notice. He worked with the company for 21 years. He too assembled with the group with a view to receiving payment.
An official from the Dipcon office, Parmeshwar Ramkarran, acknowledged that the company did owe salaries and wages, a portion of which the company was seeking to disburse. He earmarked next week for payments to be made.
Asked about the exact amount that is owed, he declined to give specific figures. However, he made it clear that the affected people would be paid in portions.
Notwithstanding, one worker made it clear that the company ought to be paying out millions, not just the $15,000 and $30,000 they have made moves to pay.
Last year June, Dipcon featured prominently when staffers went to the then Ministry of Labour to protest and lodge complaints for their benefits and severance pay. At that point, the company had its contract to conduct road works on the East Bank of Demerara taken away and handed to another company, Gaico Construction.
Dipcon had been awarded phase one of the four lane extension from Providence to Covent Garden. The 2013 Auditor General report on the Ministry of Public Works highlighted several instances, whereby construction delays within all three lots in the East Bank of Demerara highway improvement project- Providence to Covent Garden, Vreed en Ruste to Prospect and Diamond resulted in numerous time extensions and the ultimate stymieing of the endeavor.
In the case of Providence to Covent Garden, Dipcon was flagged by the report, which noted that the contract was awarded to them for some US$8M on October 3, 2011. The initial project duration was eighteen months, but this contract saw three extensions being awarded- the first from 30th April 2013 to 31st October, 2013, the second to 28 June 2014 and the third was granted up to 28th December, 2014.
Dipcon Engineering Services Ltd. constructs roadways, highways, bridges, and has locations in Trinidad and Tobago, the Eastern Caribbean and Guyana.
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