– MV Barima remains inoperable

By Rehana Ahamad
AFTER undergoing a series of critical repairs, the MV Kimbia returned to the waters on Sunday afternoon, providing significant relief to commuters travelling the Georgetown – Region One (Northwest District) route. Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill, spoke with the Guyana Chronicle, just as the vessel was preparing to set sail from port Georgetown. “Passengers are loading and we are getting ready to sail in another few minutes. We are a little behind schedule; we had set 4pm (as the departure time,” Edghill said.
He noted that the latest repairs to the MV Kimbia were executed by Guyana National Industrial Corporation (GNIC), at a cost of more than $16 million.
“The workers at the shipyard, as well as the captain, and General Manager, are all fully satisfied with the quality of work that was done. I, myself, went down to GNIC to look at what was happening,” Edghill told the Guyana Chronicle.

He noted, however, that the cost for repairs exceeded the ministry’s expectations due to the severity of damages to the vessel. “We had that major hole, and when we went down there, it was more than we expected; it was expensive work,” the Public Works Minister said, pointing to the fact that at one point, the vessel had been in dry dock for about three years.
“It went into dry dock in 2015, and came out in 2019,” Edghill posited. At that time, some $488 million was set aside for repairs.
At the time of recommissioning, the then Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson, had said that the repairs were outsourced to Courtney Benn Contracting Services Limited. Recent investigations done by the current administration revealed that the former A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance for Change (APNU+AFC) administration had been sole-sourcing and paying the company millions for incomplete and in some cases, flawed works.

The ongoing probe has so far determined that the company had been paid in excess of $610 million to execute repairs on a few vessels, but to date, no works have been done on any.
“The investigations are still ongoing, so these figures are likely to climb,” Minister within the Ministry of Public Works told the Guyana Chronicle during a recent interview.
He explained that when the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) assumed office in August 2020, the ministry launched a wide and extensive investigation into a number of outstanding infrastructural projects flagged by the Office of the Auditor General. So far, incomplete works on the three vessels remain the most significant of all the highlighted projects.
Nonetheless, even as the MV Kimbia sails again, the MV Barima remains in dry-dock undergoing repairs to its engine. The Ministry of Public Works, in a statement, had said that the MV Barima had gone without critical maintenance and repairs for almost four years. Reports are that some parts of the port main engine arrived in Guyana only on Friday last, and that the vessel is expected to be fully repaired by Wednesday.

In an effort to increase the efficiency of water transport to and from Region One, the government recently inked a $2.6 billion contract with Garden Reach Shipbuilders Engineers Limited from India, for the construction of an ocean-going passenger and cargo vessel to replace the MV Kimbia.
That new ferry, which is expected to be built and shipped to Guyana within 18 months, is being financed through a line of credit and an accompanying grant from the Government of India. This was secured by the Donald Ramotar administration, prior to the May 2015 General and Regional Elections.
Once the monies for the vessel have been expended on the project, the savings will be directed towards the construction of new stellings in Region One, namely at Morawhanna, Kumaka, and Port Kaituma.