The company contracted to construct the Specialty Hospital at Turkeyen – Surendra Engineering Company Limited (SECL) – is challenging the Alliance For Change (AFC) to provide “hard evidence” to back up the allegations made yesterday, Thursday August 22.
Leader of the AFC, Khemraj Ramjattan told reporters that the company has never constructed anything in the past and is merely a spare parts dealer.
iNews made contact with the company’s Chief Executive Officer Brijen Parikh, who in an email responded, “We are highly disappointed that SECL has been accused about several things without any effort on your part [AFC] to know the facts.”
According to Mr. Parikh, contrary to what Mr. Ramjattan stated, Surendra Engineering is registered under Indian Law, having its head office at Mumbai, India and several offices in different parts of the world for administration and support of various ongoing and completed projects.
“It is a renowned Project Engineering Company, managing and executing projects in various fields and not just a spare part supplier. We would also like to mention that contrary to your belief that SECL is a company which has never built anything coming close to a hospital – several hospital projects similar to the subject project have been successfully executed and completed by us. We have detailed status report and the Completion Certificate for various projects completed successfully by SECL.”
Mr. Ramjattan also alleged that the Government of India and the Indian Exim Bank are very concerned about Surendra being awarded the contract.
However, according to Mr. Parikh, the Exim Bank has denied this.
“We request you [AFC] to provide hard evidence on any concern expressed by the Exim Bank. When we approach Exim Bank for clarification they informed us that they have never expressed any such concern about the contract being awarded to us. They also informed us that they were not aware of any such statement, which is proof enough that it was a misleading statement,” the Company’s CEO stated.
According to Mr. Parikh, the company has submitted a detailed design report, conceptual drawings and information about the Geotechnical Investigation already carried out along with information on key persons involved in this project who are highly qualified and experienced.
“You [AFC] seem to be unaware of our amazing track record of successfully completing various construction projects in Guyana, India, Africa, South America and many other places. Please review all information and our record and reputation before you pursue your allegations, which we are sure you will find are without basis in fact. Hope these prove our capacity, capability and strength to complete the project successfully.”
The AFC called for the contract to be retendered, as they believe that it is a corrupt deal. Mr. Ramjattan is one of the lawyers representing the company Fedder – Lloyd, which had bid for the contract to construct the hospital.
