Questions surface over $3.8M contract for two bridges

Oct 04, 2018 News

The bridges under construction, which will link the West Coast Demerara communities of Windsor Forest and Ruimzeight.

There continues to be questions about the award of contracts in Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West Demerara) following the allocation of $3.8M to construct two small timber bridges.
Kaieteur News understands that there are objections to the award of the contract to build the bridges, which will link the West Coast Demerara communities of Windsor Forest and Ruimzeight.
The Regional Tender Board recently awarded the contract to Jainul Hossein Civil Engineering, who was the fourth lowest responsive bidder. Rambarran’s Construction turned in a bid of $3.5M; M.K Hanif Construction submitted a bid of $3.6M while AMIC General Contracting provided a bid of $3.7M.
Two companies submitted higher bids. R.P Construction provided a bid of $3.99M and Rams Trading & Service, $5M. The engineer’s estimate for the construction of the bridges was $4M.
Kaieteur News understands that the contract was awarded to Jainul Hossein Civil Engineering despite objections at the Tender Board level. There are calls for an explanation as to why the contract was not awarded to a contractor who submitted a lower bid.
The view has been expressed by regional officials that in the instance with the bridge contract, taxpayers could have saved $300,000.
According to information obtained, this explanation was not provided by the evaluation committee, which also selected the contractor.
Regional Executive Officer (REO) and Chairman of the regional Tender Board, Denis Jaikaran was warned earlier this year at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that there should be a reason provided in the Tender Board minutes when contracts are not awarded to the lowest responsive bidder.
The PAC had expressed alarm over the 22 instances when contracts were not awarded to the lowest bidders in the Region.
The tender process had come under scrutiny following a plan to approve $4.8M in additional works towards a bridge project at Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara.
A contract to construct the bridge was awarded to Extreme General Construction and Supplies for a timber bridge in the amount of $2.3M. Documents surfaced to indicate that the same company was awarded an additional contract for $4.8M. The total cost of the project was $7.1M.
Regional officials were scrambling to determine how to move forward with the additional $4.8M following queries by Kaieteur News. Some officials had refused to sign on to the addition cost.
Eventually, the region decided to proceed with the additional works as a variation, which was approved by the Regional Tender Board.

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