Maritime Dept. seeking new contractor to fix vessel

Apr 10, 2022 News

…after Auditor General flags payment for previous contractor for same project

Kaieteur News – In 2019, a contractor was awarded a contract by the Maritime Administration Department (MARAD) to rehabilitate the M. L. David P vessel to the tune of $12.9 million. A year later, the Auditor General (AG), Deodat Sharma in his 2020 report highlighted that the contractor was paid the full contract sum in advance for the rehabilitation and docking of that vessel, while there was no proof of the status of the works.
After being flagged by the AG, MARAD recently issued an invitation for bids (IFB) seeking a contractor to rehabilitate that same vessel at an estimated cost of $19.5 million. Also in its IFB, MARAD is looking to rehabilitate three other vessels, M. L. Thompson for an estimated cost of $24.9 million, Barge Seamang for $149.8 million and Split Barge for $49.6 million.
This year some $270 million was approved in the national budget to facilitate repairs to these vessels.
Kaieteur News had reported that a contract was signed on November 27, 2019 to repair the M. L. David P vessel. The AG at the time of reporting, in September 2021, stated that no proper documentation was provided to them for the works on this project despite the contractor being paid the entire contract sum before the end of 2019.
With no name of the contractor provided by the AG, Kaieteur News had reported that during the opening of this project at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) office in September 2019, two contractors had submitted bids to carry out the rehabilitation works on the vessel. The firms that bid for the MARAD project were the Guyana National Industrial Company Inc. which submitted $14,486,128 and Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited which submitted $12,949,060.
The AG report states that, “The bank guarantee expired since 15 January, 2020. As a result, the Department was not in a position to levy on the said bank guarantee, should the contractor default. In addition, documentation certifying the percentage completion of work was not seen.” As a result, the AG noted that this is a clear breach of the payment schedule of the contract.
Moreover, the Auditor General went on to explain that in August 2020, the Department stated that the works had not yet started, even though, one year had elapsed after the final payment was made. Up to the time of reporting in September 2021, the report said that evidence was not submitted to indicate the status of the works.
The Ministry of Public Infrastructure which the contract was signed under had explained that “The Head of Budget Agency stated that no maintenance records for the M. L. David P. vessel are available for the years 2019 and 2020. However, maintenance records are now in place. In addition, MARAD had intended to have the vessel docked in 2019; however, exigent circumstances prevented the execution as planned. This was not done to breach any regulation, but was committed out of necessity.”
The Audit Office, therefore, recommended that the Head of Budget Agency submit the logs for audit.

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