By Rehana Ahamad

AMID controversy, Senior Public Works Minister, Bishop Juan Edghill has indicated that the new asphalt plant at Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara will require a special investigation to determine how it was procured, among other things.
“…if it was the best deal we got; why it is not functioning; what needs to be done to make sure it functions, and how we could start using it to get greater efficiency and to get value for money in Guyana,” Edghill said on Friday.
The new asphalt plant is located aback the old facility which was recently subjected to a probe. The new plant is yet to be commissioned, due to a series of alleged deficiencies.
During an impromptu visit to the new plant, Minister Edghill said that he will also be working towards assembling a team of “technical people” to carry out a comprehensive inspection of the new facility.

“I’m arranging for that; for them to be able to tell me exactly what needs to be done, because it is taxpayers’ monies that were spent to purchase this,” Edghill noted.
The minister maintained that the plant was nothing short of being a white elephant, owing to some of its non-functioning components.
“The systems which are currently not functioning are the burner system, the bitumen weighing scale, and the granulate system,” he said, adding that “the burner is presently not working, due to a software controller, which has to be configured for the use of diesel fuel.”
He explained that these inefficiencies were detected following several tests done on a plant in December 2020. He indicated, too, that two load cells of the bitumen weighing scale were made inoperable due to moisture. This, Edghill said, has resulted in a series of other complications.
“We have a very robust developmental agenda; this plant and its capacity to put out asphalt on a daily basis is required and needed. But up until now, it can’t be operational or functional; I don’t know if it will ever be, and at what cost,” Edghill lamented.

INSTALLATION WORKS

Installation works on the new asphalt plant commenced on January 7, 2020, and was being undertaken by a 25-member team comprising of 23 local employees of the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation (DHBC) and two German technicians.
The Public Works Minister had asserted in a statement to the press that challenges being experienced by the plant were reported to the factory, and that the Germans have committed to financing the expenses of the damaged components, in light of the fact that the facility is yet to be commissioned. It was explained that on January 4 last, a factory engineer was sent overseas to spearhead efforts to remedy the deficiencies of the plant.
It had been previously reported that once fully operational, the new asphalt plant would have the capacity to produce 160 tonnes of material per hour, utilising plastic bags and bottles, as well as used tyres.

But so far, Edghill is insisting that “the plant has never turned a tonne of asphalt.” “It cannot; everything that needs to be there to make it functional is not,” he added. The minister noted, however, that because the structure is already here in Guyana, efforts are being made to ensure that it is brought to a state of functionality, so that it can be of support to the government’s developmental programmes. “The roads that need to be done; there are paving that needs to be done, and got to be done. We have a small plant that is functioning; but the old one, we need this,” Edghill emphasised. Meanwhile, David Patterson, former Minister of Public Infrastructure under the previous administration, said in a Facebook post that the minister’s claims of the plant being inoperable are untrue, and that he had been reliably informed that the plant is currently fully functional. Contacted for further clarity, Patterson declined to comment, indicating his intention to respond via social media. Nonetheless, Edghill told reporters that the impromptu visit to the plant was to “ascertain” for himself that the asphalt plant was not functioning.
“The plant that Mr. David Patterson told the whole nation is functional and operational has not mixed not even one tonne of asphalt since it is in the country from 2019 February. We are in 2021 January,” Edghill said.