BK wants Gov’t. to review termination of $827M school contract

Nov 17, 2020 News

BK International’s PRO, Adam Harris

Kaieteur News – Local contractor, BK International Incorporated, has written to Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General (AG), Anil Nandlall, requesting a review of the government’s decision to terminate the $827M Yarrowkabra Secondary Contract.
BK was awarded the project. These and other details were revealed by former Editor-in-Chief of Kaieteur News, and now BK’s Public Relations Officer (PRO), Adam Harris.
On November 2, Kaieteur News had reported that the government had terminated the services of BK and Courtney Benn Contracting Services for the construction of two schools totalling to $1.1B.
Government had premised their decision to terminate the contracts on the fact that the contractors had failed to honor their obligations. This was stated in termination letters seen by Kaieteur News.

An artist’s impression of the $827M secondary school meant to be constructed at Yarrowkabra, on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway

Harris told Kaieteur News, in a telephone interview yesterday, that he was unclear as to whether BK was terminated by the government.
However, he went on to add that the termination letter as well as “contract representation” has both been submitted for “review.”
“We’ve written to the authorities,” Harris told Kaieteur News, “asking them to review the letter and we will see where it goes from there.”
When asked whether BK is still engaging in the construction of the school, as reported by another section of the media, Harris told Kaieteur News that he did not know and that he is “not involved in the construction sector.”
He went on to say, however, that he was going to make the necessary enquiries with the engineers.
Kaieteur News attempted to contact the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BK International, Brian Tiwari, to find out whether his company was still engaging in the construction of the school despite the contract being terminated.
Those attempts, however, proved futile.
$827M Yarrowkabra Secondary School

BK International was awarded the $827M contract through the Ministry of Education on December 31, 2019.
The contract raised eyebrows as the then, A Partnership For National Unity+ Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) regime, was in caretaker mode having faced a no-confidence motion the year before. It was signed on January 7, 2020 with completion projected for March 12, 2021.
BK received a $214M advance.
The AG in his letter to BK made it explicitly clear that only five percent of the scheduled works have been completed. Similar to Courtney Benn’s case in the construction of the St. Rose’s High School, AG Nandlall indicated that BK International had committed a “fundamental breach of the terms of the contract,” with the government terminating the contract with “immediate effect.”
Notably, BK will not walk scot free, as the AG made it clear that the government will impose the enforcement of 10% of the contract sum as liquidated damages.
Further to this, will be the surrendering of the performance security as consequence of the two company’s “fundamental” breach of the contracts.
Both BK International and Courtney Benn Contracting Services were requested to have the sites of the two schools cleared “immediately.”

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