Bamia Primary School, Belle Vue pump station projects flagged in 2024 AG Report

In its latest annual report, the Audit Office of Guyana has once again flagged the controversial Belle Vue Pump Station project over its incompletion, as well as the prolonged delay of the Bamia Primary School. This was revealed by Auditor General (AG) Deodat Sharma on Thursday after he handed over the Report of the Auditor General for the 2024 fiscal year. Without going into details, AG Sharma confirmed that the report has addressed the issues with these two public projects.
“It’s in the report. You can take a look at it when it has become a public document,” the AG told reporters after handing over the report to the Speaker of the National Assembly. The 2024 AG Report would first have to be tabled in the National Assembly before it is released to the public.

$346M Bamia Primary School contract
The $346 million contract for the construction of the Bamia Primary School, located just outside Linden in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice), was awarded to St8tment Investment Inc in November 2021 under the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry. The 20-month project had an initial completion deadline for July 2023. However, the project had encountered a number of delays with several deadline extensions – the most recent being in time for the September 2025 reopening of the new school year but this was not done. In a statement back in April, the contractor had blamed a range of challenges, including labour shortages, increased material costs, and unfavourable weather conditions for the various delays the project has experienced. Nevertheless, immediately after assuming office earlier this month, newly-appointed Local Government and Regional Development Minister Priya Manickchand met with the contractors and cautioned that they either finish the project by the new October deadline or the project would be handed over to someone else. “Right now, what’s happening is the children are on shift or sitting three and four on a bench even when they’re on shift but we can’t continue that. So, we’ve just had a meeting with the contractor and their subcontractors and gone through all the things that need to be done and we’re going to be putting someone here fully to make sure that these finishing works will be finished because for the longest while I’ve been reading that they are close to finishing but I’ve also seen other schools, where there isn’t a push and other buildings [where] that last leg of finishing takes forever.”
“We can’t afford that here. These children have to come into this school and we’re looking at a date in October to begin this. So, we’re going to make sure we put a Project Manager on the premises and run down the things that have to finish… That’s serious business for us,” Minister Manickchand stressed during her September 14 visit to the school. Only on Thursday, the Local Government and Regional Development Ministry shared photos on its Facebook page of the progress made at the school since that engagement two weeks ago. Last year, AG Sharma had explained that the Bamia Primary School project was not included in his 2023 report since it was incomplete.
$865 million Belle Vue pump station contract
Meanwhile, the $865 million Belle Vue pump station contract was awarded in August 2023 to the Tepui Group, whose principal is Mikhail Rodrigues – popularly known as the Guyanese Critic. The company had received a substantial advance payment of some $182 million for mobilisation works but Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha had told the National Assembly back in January of this year that only 10 per cent of the works were completed at project site on the West Bank of Demerara (WBD). Subsequently, the Government entered into a new agreement that saw Gaico Construction and General Services Inc being subcontracted by the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) to take over and complete the project. The contract between the Government and Tepui Group allows for the subcontracting arrangement, which the NDIA will pay. In a progress update in June, Gaico had reported that it successfully completed the access road up to the crush-run level and was moving in materials for landfilling and preparing the crane pad for upcoming pile driving operations. Heavy equipment including cranes and excavators, and site offices had also been mobilised to the project site, the subcontractor had noted nearly three months ago. Efforts to contact officials from both Gaico and the NDIA on Friday for an update on current works at the pump station were futile. In the 2023 AG Report, several issues were raised about this project including the fact that the contractor, Tepui Group, failed to satisfy nine out of the 18 requirements set out in the evaluation criteria. Moreover, the report highlighted, “The Contractor was mobilised on site; however, no works were in progress at the time of the visit on 14 August 2024, while only the construction of two earthen coffer dams, excavation works, and demolition of the old existing sluice structure were completed, along with the installation of a test pile. Two excavators were seen on site, along with two site office/containers, a water pump and a quantity of timber piles and steel sheet piles at the time.”
AG training
During Thursday’s handing over ceremony, the AG revealed that his office has had several training sessions with the engineering departments at the various Ministries including Education and Local Government as well as other state agencies on steps they need to take to ensure timely and quality delivery of public projects. “We are emphasising what we need, what type of work we need. A lot of the engineers, I know for at least the Ministry of Public Works, have gone over to the oil and gas sector so you have a lot of youngsters in the Ministries and departments, and they have to quickly get itself up to date [with] what we are looking for [because] at the end of the day, we are there to protect the taxpayer dollars. That is my duty, to ensure that the taxpayer dollars are spent wisely,” AG Sharma stated on Thursday.