Latest update November 27th, 2024 1:00 AM
Courtney Benn sued for over $400M for breaching St. Rose’s High School contract
CEO of Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited, Courtney Benn.
Kaieteur News – Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, has brought litigation on behalf of the State against Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited, suing the service for more than $400M for a breach of contract in relation to its failure to complete building the St. Rose’s High School.
According to court documents, the AG is claiming damages in excess of $100M against Courtney Benn for a breach in the contract dated August 18, 2018 and the addendum on December 23, 2019 for the reconstruction of the said school.
The Claimant (AG Nandlall) is also seeking the sum of $41,230,435 as liquidated damages calculated at 10 percent pursuant to the provisions of the contract dated August 18, 2018 for the reconstruction of the St. Rose’s High School, Church Street, Georgetown.
In the third claim, the AG outlined that the contractor is liable to pay $105,812,929 due owing and payable under the Performance Bond issued by CARICOM General Insurance Company, which is also listed as a respondent in the matter.
The performance bond is in relation to the contract issued on August 18, 2018 and December 23, 2019 for the reconstruction of St. Rose’s High School.
Additionally, the AG wants Courtney Benn to pay aggravated damages in the sum of $100M for a breach of the contracts.
In the application, Nandlall said that the contractor is also liable to pay restitution to the tune of $67,337,538 for the advance payments that he collected from the Government of Guyana.
He said too that the insurance company is liable to pay all monies owing on the advanced guarantee and performance bond to the Government of Guyana and interest in accordance with Section 12 of the Law Reform Miscellaneous Act, Chapter 6:02, Laws of Guyana.
The lawsuit against Courtney Benn Contracting Services is the second of its kind, this week. On Tuesday, the AG filed a similar lawsuit against BK International for errant works and failure to honour contracts in the construction of the $827M Yarrowkabra Secondary School.
The legal proceedings follow months after the AG dispatched letters to the Company Secretary of both of the local contractors.
In his letter, which was disseminated to Courtney Benn last November, the AG noted that even though the Government of Guyana had provided an addendum for the contracts to be completed, he still fell below the scheduled work programme.
Nandlall specified that the contract sum was increased to the sum of $412,340,357, despite the fact that Courtney Benn Contracting only managed to complete nine percent of the schedule of works for the state-of-the-art school since 2018.
In his letter, the AG noted that as a consequence of the company’s breach of the terms of the contract, the Government of Guyana exercised its right to terminate the contract with immediate effect.
The termination, he said, was grounded on the breach of Clause 40.2 (a) for failing to comply with the scheduled works; as well as the breach of Clause 40.2 (g) read along with the special conditions of the contract for inordinate delay in the completion of works under the contract.
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