THE controversial Specialty Hospital Project is once again likely to take the sidelines while Minister of Public Health, Dr George Norton announced that talks are afoot about a Paediatric Hospital to be located at the Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara site instead.Minister Norton made this disclosure during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle yesterday at the presentation of the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) report.
This publication was made to understand that the matter is currently at the level of Cabinet awaiting consultations.
Asked whether the remaining US$13M from the Export-Import Bank of India will be used for this prospective project, Dr Norton indicated that though it is undecided, “we might close the fund, or use it to develop other medical institutions nationwide.”
It was last reported in the Guyana Chronicle on June 17, 2016, that Cabinet Secretary Joseph Harmon had said that while the Government would proceed with the contract for construction of the controversial hospital, Government did not have the option to award that contract to companies outside of India.
The report further added that, “the contract which is there for the Specialty Hospital requires an Indian company to build that Specialty Hospital. And therefore the bidding and everything has to be done by a certain standard established by the Indians,” Harmon had said.
Harmon, however, confirmed that the Government of India had opted out of the engagement with the contractors,Fedders Lloyd, who had been employed to take on the project, because of the World Bank’s ‘fraud and corruption’ sanction against the company.
Further, according to the June 17 report, Fedders Lloyd had been awarded the contract for construction of the hospital by the David Granger Administration after the previous Donald Ramotar Government had parted ways with Surrendra Engineering Company, the first Indian firm to be awarded the contract to build the hospital.