THE incomplete $27.1M Eccles Health Centre is as a result of the negligence of its contractors, says Region Four’s (Demerara-Mahaica) Regional Executive Officer (REO), Pauline Lucas.

At their recent Regional Democratic Council (RDC) monthly meeting, Lucas made her position clear to the councillors that she would not be transferring payments to contractors for work done haphazardly. The current challenge lies with the type of zinc sheets being utilised by the contracted company, Vision’s General Construction Services, which Lucas insists must be changed.

However, the contractor maintains that he must be paid for previous works conducted prior to proceeding further. Lucas said that despite explaining several times to the contractor that removing the wrong zinc sheets and replacing them with the correct ones will enable him to be paid, he does not seem interested in doing such.

“Recognising that he had the wrong zinc sheets on, I told him that he may proceed with the work on the building but that the zinc sheets had to be changed. He requested a payment but I told him that I cannot pay him unless the work has been examined and verified by the engineer,” Lucas was quoted in a release from the RDC as saying.
Coupled with this is the challenge whereby the engineer with previous responsibility for the project, Yogesh Narine upon his departure, had not handed over all the documents for the projects.

This resulted in the current Engineer, Eon Austin, encountering a number of difficulties. Nonetheless, Lucas states that the health centre was slated to be completed by the end of June and despite being granted extensions, the contractor has failed to complete the project.

“I have made my position clear to the contractor that he cannot receive any additional payment until he fixes the roof with the zinc sheets, and the engineer would have reviewed and certified the work done,” the REO said. Several councillors congratulated the REO on the position that she has taken regarding the matter, the release stated.