…Govt spending $40M to repair shoddy work on turkey homes

The Ministry of Housing is spending over $40 million dollars to effect the second phase of repairs for more poorly constructed Turnkey homes in Providence, East Bank Demerara.
Remedial work which started about two weeks ago has not only seen the vacating of some homeowners to allow for the corrective work, but at least two homes had to be completely destroyed and rebuilt due to defective construction. During a visit to the Providence location, work was being conducted on several houses, some with minor and major repairs. A private contractor who wished not to be named explained to this newspaper that due to the repairs, several residents had to vacate their houses. One homeowner, he pointed out, had to remove from his house because the building was becoming unsafe.
“The man (homeowner) had to move out for us to break down the house because it was not safe. The whole place was cracking up,” the contractor noted.

Rondane Baptiste said that his family has been living in Providence for some three years now and they applied to the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) to have remedial works conducted on their home. He said there were cracks in his walls and foundation and this was repaired. He said although his family did not have to relocate to have the repairs done, he was aware of other families who had to leave their premises.  He said his neighbour, for instance had to leave because her entire floor had collapsed.
“That’s the problem. Most of these foundations are cracking,” Baptiste pointed out.
Another contractor who identified himself as Safie, told the Guyana Chronicle that other issues such as leaks due to the use of inferior materials and poor execution of the work in general also existed. “On some of the houses they used regular nails, and these rust easily, so when rain falls the place is leaking.”

Project Manager Kenneth Dazzel told this newspaper that currently 24 houses are being repaired in Providence, with 18 previously looked after. There are about 200 Turnkey homes in Providence and Perseverance. Many of the Perseverance homes have been fixed with some minor work remaining on others. The 200 turnkey homes built by the previous government were all sold just under $5M, but after complaints, the CH&PA reported that more than $100M would be needed to facilitate remedial works at the two locations. The Department of Housing had pointed out that some of the contractors who worked on the Turnkey homes previously could not be located.