Govt backs down from legal action

Kato Secondary School

Government has backed down from the course of legal actions and has decided to grant a disreputable contracting company another chance, by allowing the firm to repair its shoddy works done at the multimillion-dollar Kato Secondary School.

A Government delegation consisting of members from the Public Infrastructure Ministry and the Education Ministry visited Kato, Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) over the weekend to consult with residents on the best way forward in relation to the defective educational institution.

Students have been in limbo because no remedial works to the faulty school have commenced since the discoveries of the deficiencies were made.

President David Granger, during an interview on his pre-recorded televised programme – The Public Interest – had posited that legal actions will be taken against the contracting firm, Kares Engineering, to recoup monies that will be spent on fixing the defective school.

He also ruled out the company being granted any further contracts in the future.

But during the visit to Kato, authorities made a decision to have Kares Engineering correct the inferior works conducted at the school.

Sources told Guyana Times that an independent assessment will be done at the building to identify the scope of remedial works that need to be done and then the contractors will be engaged.

Guyana Times was also told that a special committee consisting of members from the Ministries of Public Infrastructure and Education, the region and from the Guyana Association of Professional Engineers will be established to oversee the initiative and to ensure the contracting firm does the work right this time around.

Some three years ago, the previous administration paid close to $1 billion to Kares Engineering Incorporated for the construction of the school, which would have accommodated some 400 children from the community.

However, the Public Infrastructure Ministry had estimated that 60 per cent of the school has defects.

Auditing company Rodrigues Architects Limited, found severe structural defects in the complex, such as crumbling walls, bad timbers, exposed electrical outlets, cracking stairways, and exposed steel.

The auditors said the classrooms were incorrectly placed away from the windward side and would ultimately lead to hot, uncomfortable classrooms.

Additionally, it was highlighted that the dining room and kitchen could not accommodate the school’s projected number of students. Safety concerns were also noted since the school lacked fencing. This was especially worrying since the school would be housing at least 250 students in its dormitories.

The company estimated that remedial works would cost a whopping $140 million.

Other options which were being explored by Government included whether Government should stand the expense to fix the school or whether the company that presided over the bad workmanship should be mandated to repair its inferior work.

However Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson had indicated that although the contracting company is willing to remedy the faults, Government is not keen on having them conduct the repairs since they are under investigation.

According to media reports, he had asserted that the company was given many opportunities to correct its poor work, but did not.