Minister Benn replies to Stabroek News’ grossly inaccurate assertions
PUBLIC Works Minister, Robeson Benn set out on Friday to correct assertions made in a Stabroek News article captioned “Engineers report slammed VIKAB, BK over bungled Supenaam Stelling”. The caption was printed on the front page of the Stabroek News along with a story on page three under the same headline, and which continued on page 26 of the paper. In a letter to the Editor of the Stabroek News, which was sent from the Office of the Minister of Transport and Hydraulics and signed by that minister; and which was also made available to the Guyana Chronicle, the minister made reference to two false assertions.
The first one was ‘the gross failure of the project’ which the article related to. In his letter, Minister Benn said he wished to state that there was no “gross failure” of the project. He said that interventions proposed and put in place by the Ministry of Public Works and the Transport and Harbours Department have seen successful use of the Supenaam Stelling.
Minister Benn’s letter pointed out that all the Transport and Harbours Department’s operations to the Essequibo Coast have been moved from Adventure to Supenaam since March 26th, 2011.
The Stabroek News article was based on a report into the problem at the Supenaam Stelling in 2010, which was tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday last.
The second issue Minister Benn’s letter addressed was the article mentioning that “the stelling is operating at the moment, but not to its full capacity, since only 16 tons per truck is allowed to use the facility”. Minister Benn described that assertion as grossly inaccurate, and misrepresenting the facility’s capacity and use. He said the facility has been accepting loads of up to 22.5 tons since May of 2010, and this was being done subsequent to modifications effected on the Supenaam facility.
In 2010, BK International came in for harsh criticism after it was discovered that there were several issues with the then newly constructed docking facility at Supenaam. The many troubles at the facility had caused the then President of Guyana, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, to order an investigation into the quality of work done on the facility.
Prior to the report being tabled in the National Assembly on Thursday last, there were reports that several engineering designs were altered, and this was blamed for the stelling’s inability to perform as expected.
Neither the Ministry of Public Works nor the contractor BK International was willing to accept responsibility for the substandard works.