MINISTER within the Ministry of Finance, Bishop Juan Edghill, on Friday visited several capital works ongoing along the West Coast of Berbice and in Canje, in Regions Five and Six.

The visit was part of an ongoing campaign to verify that contractors are moving apace with work, and to ensure the amount of work being done at the various sites allows for completion of various projects by the end of October 2013.

Complaints from Region Five residents and Chairman about unsatisfactory and incomplete work done on a culvert by Kares Engineering Inc. seems to have upset the minister more than all the other complaints he received during Friday’s exercise.

That engineering company was awarded a contract to build culverts at Belladrum at a cost of almost one hundred million dollars. Thus the company’s construction of a culvert that has effectively inconvenienced residents of that community and has made it impossible for them to be reached by emergency teams in event of a fire or medical emergency was greatly upsetting to Minister Edghill.

This grossly substandard piece of work done by Kares Engineering has caused injury to many persons traversing the area, and accidents and damage to vehicles, it has been reported.

After the company had completed construction of the culvert, it abandoned the worksite, leaving behind boards protruding in the air; effectively blocked drains, seriously compromising the village’s drainage and irrigation infrastructure; a sunken road; and houses precariously set to crumble to the ground. All of these faults were very evident to any casual observer when Minister Edghill visited the worksite on Friday.

As Minister Edghill stopped at Belladrum, residents and the chairman inundated him with complaints about how disgusting the situation has been for them. One man even spoke of the possible outbreak of an epidemic threatening the health of residents as a result of the accumulation of stagnant water, which is beginning to become green in colour. He said that should the situation remain unchanged, especially during the upcoming November-to-January rainy season, the entire Belladrum community would be inundated, since the drain which has been blocked is a main drainage artery for the farmlands!

Minister Edghill ordered his staff to note the residents’ concerns and the uncharacteristically substandard work done by the contractor after he had listened to their grievances. The residents are also calling for signs and other forms of warning to be erected at the culvert and approach to the sinking roadway, to apprise drivers of the dangers they face. Two motorcyclists were recently injured at that very location, one of whom is now unable to return to the United States because of his injury, Belladrum resident Harold George told the media.

The minister admitted that he himself, in passing the area, has had to slow down many times, but he said he had no idea the problem was as big as was related to him on Friday.

On Friday evening, this newspaper contacted the Kares Engineering Inc for comment on the state of the Belladrum project. A woman who answered the phone said the project manager was currently in the interior; but after being told that Minister Edghill had visited the location and had received complaints about the works at the location, and that this newspaper was carrying a story to that effect, the woman offered to locate one of the engineers and return a call. Within fifteen minutes, a call was returned to this publication with some very interesting news: the man who was supposedly in the interior and could not be contacted by phone was suddenly available to speak to this publication, since he had “just return”, she was quoted as saying.

The man identified himself as Radesh Rameshwar, Project Director of the construction firm. He was told about the issues raised on Friday at the location, and the mood those issues had put the minister in. The man sought to explain the situation.
Rameshwar said that, first and foremost, the contract for the works at Belladrum, like the other locations he is working on, comes to an end on the last day of October, thus he has until that time to finish all works at Belladrum, including tidying up the surroundings and paving the roadway at the culvert.

In regard to the dam preventing water from draining off the land, he said the claim is false, since the community is being drained, because provisions were made for that in the contract under a heading that deals with alternative drainage. The man could not recall where in the community the alternative drainage is located, but he assured that it is in place.

He said that in regard to the culvert being lower than the road, his company had built the culvert based on the specifications and designs prepared by the consultant working for the client, that is, the Government of Guyana. Nevertheless, workers would revisit the area to conduct other works along the West Coast of Berbice at other construction sites, and he would ensure that when they do, they visit the Belladrum culvert also. He was unable to say when his workers would return to the area, but assured that they would.

On Friday, Minister Edghill hauled head of the H. Naught Construction and Contracting Services proverbially over the coals for his sloth in completing revetment works in Canje. Originally awarded a contract to construct a road in the New Forest area, as that assignment was nearing completion, the company bid and won a contract to provide one hundred metres of revetment along both sides of the said road, after it was realised that, although the road was built, there was need for the revetment to make it durable.

The contractor tried to give the minister all sorts of excuses for his failure to work with appropriate dispatch, but the minister would have none of it. Edghill ordered that equipment be brought and the works be done speedily. The minister would be revisiting the area next week Friday, by which time the works should be more than halfway completed.

After the disappointing visit to the New Forest area on Friday, the minister next visited the Rose Hall outfall, where only approximately two percent of the works there had not been completed, and that had to do with digging of the outfall to drain several areas in Berbice. The pump station was completed, the pump had been installed, and the perimeter of the premises was almost enclosed by a fence. The minister was deeply satisfied with those works, and explained that should all other projects be finished on time as the Rose Hall outfall, then the country would be enjoying an improved situation.

Speaking with the minister and members of the media on Friday, consultant supervisor of the Rose Hall works, Lourdes Sukhdeo, said the work still outstanding — digging the outfall and completing the fencing — would be finished by next week.

On Friday, there was machinery working at the location, digging the outfall. There were also workers on site, and both the pump station and the pump attendant’s house were in perfect order and ready to be put into operation.

The pump, along with another pump in another part of the region, has the capacity to drain approximately 340 tonnes of water per minute, it was related. The pump was already tested and is in perfect working order.

The completion of that project, which had been awarded to Toolsie Persaud Limited, would see several communities being effectively drained, and would also assist GuySuCo to drain water off the land.

In the past, a mobile pump at the location did not have the capacity to drain the land effectively, and residents asked Central Government to intervene, since the inconvenience was affecting farmers and residents in the area.

At approximately 15 hours, the minister made a stop at Number 3 Village, WCD, where workers of Dilip Contracting were supposed to be constructing a bridge. They had already called off work for the day, even though their work was nothing close to being finished.

Those workers initially showed no sign of respect to a government minister, as they operated very casually, with no form of professionalism. As the minister pulled up at the location, the men were all sitting, relaxing; and when asked the reason for their posture at that time of the afternoon, the men related that they were finished work for the day. They explained that their job for the day was to tie off steel, and their relaxing mode was because they were awaiting a machinery to be moved from one construction site miles away to the site they were working on.

The men told the minister the machine on which they were awaiting was already on its way, but the minister pointed out that he had just passed three other work sites and there was no machinery on its way to their location, nor was there anyone at those locations he had just passed.

The men explained that the machine which they were awaiting is used for cutting the road to create the levelling. They said the absence of that machinery had forced them to wait in vain, since it is presently out of order.

They said the unfinished portion of work at the location would take them only four days to complete, provided that the weather is favourable. They said that casting of a bridge would take four days. One section of the bridge had already been cast, but according to the workers, they were awaiting a shipment of stone to complete constructing the bridge.

What was ironic was that that contractor seemed to be having much difficulty in completing the tasks for which he had bid, since there are two other bridges which should be completed by the end of October, and those have not yet even been started.

Despite that very evident and embarrassing sloth in that contractor’s works, his workers still allowed themselves the relative luxury of closing off work at 15 hours on Friday, while absolutely nothing was being done at other locations where the very contractor should have persons working around the clock to get the projects completed on time.

Minister Edghill sent contractors a stern warning last Monday — Government “will be enforcing” penalty clauses on contractors who have failed to meet deadlines and would have faulted in any way.

Most of the works presently ongoing should be completed by the end of October.

Asked why contractors have not been fired for non-performance, or harshly penalized for causing citizens hardship and discomfort for works which are of poor quality on completion, or turn out to be sloppy, like the works done by Kares Engineering, Minister Edghill said one of the biggest problems Government is facing is that the country does not have many contractors, and when works are advertised, the same contractors are likely to be the ones bidding for them.