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“The Kaieteur News of Sunday November 25 has reported yet another wholly inaccurate and grossly misleading story on works delivered by BK International, this time misquoting Region 6 Chairman, David Armogan, on the construction of sections of the Corentyne highway alleged to be deteriorating,” the release said.
It added: “According to the Kaieteur News report, “BK International, the contractor who constructed a significant portion of the Corentyne highway, has been instructed to immediately undertake remedial works to fix the broken section”. Mr. Armogan is quoted as saying that “a lot of these works are still on warranty because they were only done last year”.
BK International was contracted to rebuild the section of the Corentyne highway from Number 36 to 63 villages, approximately 17.5 kilometres of roadway. The contract was completed, including the defects liability period, in October 2009 and the two year routine maintenance period ended in October 2011 at which time the road was completely handed over to the government without defects. The remaining section of the highway from 63 Village to Moleson Creek is the responsibility of another contractor.
According to the release the Region 6 Chairman spoke on Tuesday with the Managing Director of BK International, Mr. Brian Tiwarie, and confirmed that the Kaieteur News completely misrepresented his interview with their reporter.
“Mr. Armogan confirmed to Mr. Tiwarie that the picture of the damaged road at Eversham, published by the Kaieteur News was taken much earlier this year and that that section of the damaged roadway was repaired by BK International, free of cost, since August this year, 10 months after the contracted maintenance period had expired. The Kaieteur News should be congratulating BK International for saving taxpayers money instead of misreporting,” the release noted.
“BK International wishes to point out that the deliberate and calculated use of a picture by Kaieteur News taken many months ago to falsely represent the current condition of the road is an inexcusable example of the lowest form of irresponsible journalism,” the release stated.
BK International further pointed out that there are numerous examples of both sea defence and road construction works carried out by foreign contractors which have sometimes proved to be defective within the liability period and have had to be rectified, often at a high cost to the taxpayer, by local contractors, as the foreign firms have already left the country.
BK International also said it has no difficulty in acknowledging reports of any defective work accurately reported in the media and will readily rectify such work free of cost, but considers it reprehensible when our newspapers violate their public trust to first establish the facts before publishing misleading and damaging reports.
