By Fareeza Haniff
[www.inewsguyana.com] – The APNU+AFC government is clamping down on those contractors who attempt to fleece the administration of monies by seeking extension on their contracts.
Minister of State, Joseph Harmon told a post cabinet media briefing on Wednesday, September 23, 2015 that the Ministries of Public Infrastructure, Business and Finance have been tasked with creating new guidelines for contractors and to brief them on the penalties attached for breach of contract.
According to Harmon, the government intends to scrutinize all existing contracts for areas of default and shoddy work, while the Ministry of Public Infrastructure is seeking to establish an Inspectorate Division, aimed at inspecting all government funded projects, in order to ensure that the country is getting value for its money.
“Cabinet had some very firm words to say to the manner in which the contracts were executed under the previous administration and the fact that contract sums were being extended, extended, extended beyond the sum that was actually catered for in the award of the contract,” Harmon told the media.
According to him, it appears to Cabinet that some of the contracts were “deliberately under-bidded…people were bidding low and knowing fully well that they were going to come later on for variations so that in a process like that, tenderers who could have done the work, they were actually cheated out of the contracts because some persons deliberately bidded low and the contracts were awarded to the lowest bidder, knowing fully well that they will come back for variations which eventually took the contract sum beyond what was the engineer’s estimate.”
Cabinet was confronted with this situation when it examined the award for an extension of the consultancy service for the Kato Secondary School.
“This is a Primary School that started at about $500M and is almost an a $1 billion now and it’s still not finished and so the Company that is supervising the work of that contract, they’ve actually now come back to Cabinet to ask for an extension which will cost another $4.2M on the construction services that are being provided,” Harmon explained.
He further noted, “So what you’re finding here now is that you’re probably having a consultancy service that is approving extensions after extensions on the original contract so that they themselves have now come to Cabinet to ask for an extension of their own contract.”
According to Harmon, Cabinet has since instructed Minister of Education, Dr Rupert Roopnarine to meet with the Contracting Service “and have some very firm words with them to the effect that we’re not going to tolerate any further extensions because it’s basically becoming a travesty, the way in which these matters are dealt with.”
BUGS and especially MAXXFAX you are blogging nonsense. Get your facts confirmed before you cast stones at anyone.
For MAXXFAX it appears that you are in a world of your own. Just look at the news lately you will soon realize that this APNU + AFC=PNC cannot move this country forward. We have a bunch of dunces leading our Nation. You will soon be back in lines for food. Your good old PNC days are back regardless if you voted for them or not.
MAXXFAX move on from race base blogging. I have no time for it.
You do not see RACE as an issue, so why are you and company so unhappy? The same ppl that rig elections in 92 fed up with the Lawlessness so the rig you ppl out,wake up And start living a clean and natural life, and when it come to RACE you ppl are the worst, and just to update you and friends I NEVER VOTED PNC, a right could never be a left, thank you
Listen MAXXFAX I do not see race as an issue. It is people like you who have this country trending backwards.
We simply cannot trust the same OLD GUARDS again (PNC). You are extremely happy to see your old friends back in power. They have fired hundreds of Indo-Guyanese.
We will continue to espose this defacto Government until they are out of Office. We do not want then to gain power through the the back door. They must be elected not rigged or garner support to fix an election win.
The money ended up in Florida and NY, thank you for your FAX
West dem,repeat this crap you are blogging when JAIL is opening its doors for you friends, you ppl is what have Guyana in the stateits in, let jenny wildwest account for her share of the pie,and let your GOD Barrat account for his cake, hold your breath the evidence is what have you and your bunch in opposition for life, the only cure for ELECTIONSDEFETSYNDROM is start living as a GUYANESE and not indo or afro,,,,forget the party of you choice and think of doing something for the betterment of your country
claudeston massiah it appears that you are the judge & jury. What due diligence have you executed to conclude that the PPP pocketed this money. Do not blog nonsense. Get your facts confirmed before your fingers do the talking.
This is my point all the time. Fire all the permanent secretaries and the engineers. They must be held responsible because they are the accounting officer. You cant just them indian ps.
Of course some of that extension money ended up in the pocket of the ppp thieves and scamps. This is what the short sighted supporters woukd like to see continue.