‘Emergency’ Mahaicony sea defence project moving at snail’s pace

Jul 19, 2020 News

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By Mikaila Prince
Close to a month after the award of the $352M sea defence project to Brian Tiwari’s BK International Incorporated for what was touted as “urgent flood protection works”, no significant movement has been made on the 500 meters of breached sea defence between Dantzig and Content in Mahaicony, Region Five.
In October of 2019, powerful high tides had devastated parts of coastal Guyana, with thousands of families living near the shoreline struggling to keep their belongings, livestock and farmlands from being damaged by saltwater that had breached the coastland.
At the time, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MoPI) had ramped up works with contractors along certain points at the Mahaicony foreshore and spent close to $1B spent to seal the breaches. Initially, the contract to repair to severe sea defense damages was awarded to A&S General Contractors, but was later transferred to BK International Inc., following poor works executed by A&S.
When this current contract was awarded on June 24, it had raised and continues to raise questions about transparency of government spending in general, and specifically the awarding out of contracts during a very contentious period. To compound issues, public accountability advocates have argued that the governing coalition lacks the authority in itself to approve of multi-million dollar contracts like this and others, owing to the fact that Cabinet is required to give the green light for any contract worth in excess of $15M; Cabinet was nullified with the dissolution of Parliament in December of 2019 and that status quo remains until a final declaration of the March 2, General and Regional Elections is announced, a President is sworn, and a new Cabinet is selected.
Despite being the highest bidder for the project by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) BK International was awarded a contract to the tune of $352M, some $74M more than its already relative high bid offer. BK International was one of the three companies who bid to secure the contract, the other two companies being MB Construction who bid $235,744,500 and Colin Talbot Contracting Services who submitted a bid of $247,599,600, while the engineer’s estimate was $184,521,000. BK’s bid was $278,876,300 – some $31M over the next highest bid and more than $90M over the engineer’s estimate.
BK and the MoPI had defended this $74M increase, stating that an additional 150 meters were added to the original project, which took the scope of works to 500 meters.

A visit to the site
This publication yesterday paid a visit to the stretch of sea defence, close to two miles inward from the Dantzig main road. The journey to the site was one made under a scorching sun, along an uneven and slushy mud road bordered on each side by acres of flooded rice fields.
Upon arriving at the site, after about 45 minutes of trekking, Kaieteur News came upon a work site, but one in which not much work seems to have been done on what was touted to be an emergency repair.

On the 500m of threatened sea defense, two clear breaches were apparent —these were estimated to be about 100ft in total. With no mangroves on the shore to protect the lands from being overtaken, salt water from the sea gushed onto the lands with little force, despite boulders lined off to prevent this.
A worker on site spoke to Kaieteur News on the condition of anonymity. He noted that the powerful ocean waves had caused so much damage to the sea defence infrastructure, that a decision was recently undertaken to reinforce the foundation of the damaged area. The worker explained that excavators were tasked with digging up the muddy soil, filling the gap with boulders, stacking those boulders with the soil which was initially removed, following which they would compact the rebuilt foundation. This reinforcement, the worker said, would be completed a few times until they were satisfied with the works. Notably, during Kaieteur News visit yesterday, it was discovered that the first stage of that task of reinforcement had barely begun.
When asked on the specifics of the project such as costs, the worker told this publication that he knew nothing about the contract details. He noted however, that it would take close to two years to complete the project—a task he considered to be a very “tough” one.

Request to view contract
Despite a series of requests via emails and phone calls to the MoPI, the ministry has refused to share with Kaieteur News the contract signed between them and BK International Inc. Yesterday, this publication made several attempts to contact Tiwari himself. On the first attempt, Kaieteur News had gotten onto the CEO, but that conversation was quickly disconnected after the reporter had identified herself and the media house she represented. Further phone calls were subsequently made to Tiwari, all of which went answered. A text message was also sent out to his personal number, but up to press time no response was provided.

 

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