Contractor bids $54M below engineer’s estimate to rebuild burnt wing of Diamond Secondary School

Apr 30, 2022 News

By Allyiah Allicock

Kaieteur News – One of 13 contractors vying to rebuild the wing of the Diamond Secondary School which was destroyed by fire in 2018, has entered a bid that is $54 million lower than the engineer’s estimated cost – $75 million.

The destroyed section of the Diamond Secondary School

The contractor entered a bid of just over $21M for the first phase of the project which is slated to be completed in two phases – both phases are estimated, by the engineer, to cost $163M.
This project is being undertaken by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development through the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Four.
The companies that submitted bids to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) office on Tuesday to carry out the works at the school are: Reiaz Akbar General Construction and Service – $64,803,683, A & N Enterprise –$76,356,382, VR Construction Inc. – $74,013,183, Civcon Engineering Contractors –$77,804,439, Navin and Sons Construction – $69,828,367, N&S General Engineering and Construction Service – $70,143,404, DN&D Civil Engineering Services –$61,696,851, Romano Builder – $66,079,167, S&K Construction Consultancy Service and General Supply – $65,444,759, BDE Recycling – $70,000,000, Kawal Ramdeen General Construction and Office Furnishing – $68,812,181, Vishal Contracting Company – $69,681,906, and lastly, Truck Smart, the contractor that bid the lowest with $21,422,201.
The reconstruction of the wing at the school comes merely three years after it was destroyed by a fire in 2018.
Kaieteur News understands that this project will form part of the $6.6 billion that was allocated in this year’s budget for the construction, rehabilitation, extension, and maintenance of educational facilities across the country.
Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region Four, Donald Gajraj, had told this publication back in March that the wing of the building, which was destroyed, will be rehabilitated to its previous size.
Gajraj said that when the budgetary allocation has passed through the national procurement process, the project “will go out to tender” and works will begin once a contract has been awarded.
In an interview with Kaieteur News, headmistress of the school, Ms. Lesmine Collins had expressed her gratitude now that the project is coming on stream this year. According to her, it is currently short on space to accommodate students. This, she said, has been the state of affairs since the fire destroyed the office and staff room areas, forcing her, and teachers, to occupy classrooms.
Also destroyed in the fire were the Information Technology (IT) lab and the school’s library. Eze Hamilton, the IT teacher, told this publication that the rebuilding of that section will benefit both the staff and students – especially IT students who have to write their Electronic Document Preparation and Management (EDPM) examinations.
This newspaper understands that the project, once completed, will also save students from travelling to the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD) in order to write their examinations, due to the lack of resources at the school. “It is definitely great news, because after the fire we began using one of the classrooms as the main office area and the Technical Drawing room as a staff room for teachers. The IT lab and library were also destroyed in the fire. We are currently using one of the science labs, which have been fitted with computer for IT class. This is not ideal because the computers should be in an air conditioned room, and the stools and tables that are currently being used were not designed to be used with a computer, especially since there is no back rest,” Hamilton said.
It was reported back in 2018 that the office area of the school was gutted by an early morning fire on Christmas Eve day. At the time of the fire, a press release which was issued by the Ministry of Education, stated that approximately 1:20am on December 24, 2018, the Guyana Fire Service (GFS) responded to a report of a fire at the school.
However, upon their arrival, the middle section was already engulfed with flames.
The release further stated that the cause of the fire was unknown at the time of the release and that the GFS conducted inspections to ascertain whether the fire was as a result of an electrical malfunction, but no issues were found with the electrical connections.
Further investigations determined that the fire was an act of arson.