Former Govt. engineer accused of contract breach, lying to PAC

Apr 26, 2022 News

– criminal probe ordered

By Rehanna Ramsay

Kaieteur News – Dannie Ramdolar, a former government engineer, who was attached to the Ministry of Home Affairs, is expected to face a criminal investigation after he was accused of lying to the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) during a sitting on Monday.

Dannie Ramdolar, a former government engineer, is to face a criminal probe for lying to the Public Accounts Committee.

Ramdolar was among a team of Home Affairs officials which presented before the PAC. He was questioned about some missing information in relation to a contract for works to a sluice at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara in 2018.
According to the Auditor General’s report, a sample of nine projects with contract sums totalling $38.581M for maintenance works were selected for physical verification.
It was noted that a contract for the renovation of a new self-acting sluice at Western Section, Lusignan was awarded in the sum of $4.636M by the ministerial tender board to the lowest evaluated of 16 bidders.
The engineer’s estimate was $5.780M. The contract was signed on December 5, 2018 with duration of two months for completion and defects liability period of three months. As at December 2018, amounts totalling $4.544M was paid to the contractor.
It was discovered that the engineer certified that the works were completed since December 16, 2018. However, the auditor’s physical verification on May 3, 2019 revealed that the contractor was still on-site effecting works to the structure.
As such, it was noted that the engineer falsely certified that the works were completed since December 2018.
Physical inspection of the concrete works to the structure revealed shoddy works, with honeycombing of the concrete and pieces of cement bags cast into the finished structure.
The Audit Office had recommended that the head of the agency must immediately desist from certifying and processing payments for incomplete works and improve in the supervision of works and should not make payments for unacceptable works that do not meet the specifications.
During the PAC hearing on Monday, Ramdolar faced a series of question in relation to the contract and payment for the project.
Minister of Public Works and PAC member, Juan Edghill made specific enquiries “as to how a blank bill of quantities ended up being presented with the contract for audit.”
Ramdolar explained that “Normally three contracts are signed…for some reason, the blank copy ended up with the ministry and there was a mix up of some sort…”
His explanation proved unsatisfactory to the committee.
The Minister noted that, based on the Auditor General’s report, there were numerous incomplete works that were part of the substantive project and not remedial works.
Edghill insisted that the contract should not be paid in full if the work was not completed.
“If two weeks after you sign a contract, you prepare a final payment voucher that went to the Ministry’s Finance department for payment…when the work was not completed, it was not done…We’re in breach, serious breach,” he said.
He continued, “The rules are that unexpended sums must be returned to the consolidated fund and there is nothing stopping you in your budget the next year, to ask for the sums to be allocated as a multi-year project.”
“What is difficult for me to understand is that two weeks after the contracts were signed, you prepared everything in full,” Edghill lamented.
Former Permanent Secretary of the then Ministry of Public Security, Daniella McCalmon told the PAC that the payments were processed in this manner to facilitate the retrieval of funds at the end of the year.
Edghill said, therefore, that the sum should have been re-budgeted in 2019 as a rollover project and not paid in full as it is reflected in the report.
But Ramdolar maintained there was no breach.
He claimed instead that the substantive works set out in the contract were completed in December 2018 and only remedial works continued in 2019.
But the PAC was not convinced. Chairman of the PAC, Jermaine Figueira pointed to sections of the audit report and photographs were proved otherwise to the claims of the engineer.
“Sir you are deliberately misleading the PAC, your explanation is in direct conflict with the audit report and the pictures presented by the auditor and this is despite the fact that you were warned that you can commit perjury under the Legislative Bodies (Evidence) Act, Chapter 1:08 read to you before the commencement of this meeting.”
The former engineer, nevertheless, maintained what he said.
Both sides of the PAC agreed that the engineer should be criminally investigated for the alleged perjury committed before the Parliamentary Committee.
Edghill asked that a criminal investigation be called and this was seconded by Ganesh Mahipaul. This call was approved by the PAC Chair who said that the Finance Secretary Sukrishnanlall Pasha would be guided by the PAC’s decision.
And in an unprecedented move, both PAC members, Juan Edghill and Ganesh Mahipaul, recommended that Finance Secretary Pasha refer the matter to the Guyana Police Force (GPF) for a criminal investigation.
Figueira then asked Ramdolar to recuse himself from further examination of the ministry.