Prominent artist blames contractors for shoddy work

… regional authorities in the dark

Prominent national artist, Philbert Gajadhar, who along with Winslow Craig designed the Indian Arrival Monument at Palmyra, Corentyne is blaming the contractors for the recent collapse.

Gajadhar told Guyana Times on Tuesday, that the design was not in keeping with what was originally agreed on during the initial phase of the project design.

“In our design concept, the base was not supposed to be that high. It was supposed to be about eight to nine feet. So that thing was done too high,” the artist argued.

Two Saturdays ago, Gajadhar was contacted by the Education Ministry and asked to meet with the contractors. The meeting was expected to take place at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, East Bank Demerara.

The artist said it was explained that the contractors were having some problems regarding how to place the monument on the base and were looking to get advice from them.

That meeting never materialised but according to Gajadhar, he and his colleague visited the site.

“We went and we looked at it and I told them that what they were building there cannot accommodate our plans, our designs and the placement of the figures and so on,” he explained.

Another meeting was promised in which the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Gale Rigobert, was expected to attend. However, this meeting has not yet been finalised.

Nevertheless, Gajadhar is of the opinion that if he and his colleague were consulted by the new Government then the current situation would not be happening. “We were not involved. We were left out totally,” he lamented.

Region in dark

Meanwhile, regional officials who met on Tuesday to discuss projects in the region said no information has been provided to the body with regards to the monument’s construction.

One day after the structure collapsed, the contracting company, Alternative Contracting Enterprises, revealed that an engineer from India was expected to visit the project site and advise on the way forward.

However, the next day workers were seen digging at the base but provided no information. When this publication visited the project site on Tuesday, there was no work taking place.

A new contractor and two employees were later seen at the site. They claimed their only duty was to construct a fence, which was separate from the job of the contractor to construct the base for the monument.

However, Guyana Times understands that the contract was given to Alternative Contracting Enterprises as the company was not the lowest bidder.

The $97 million project includes the construction of a base for a three-ton monument depicting six persons (four adults and two children). The six-foot statue depicting six bronze figures of three men, two women and a child illustrates Indians in their everyday life.

The monument was built at the tune of $35 million in India has been in Guyana since May 2016.

In March 2017, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo along with the Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, V Mahalingam unveiled a signboard depicting the artist’s impression of the monument. The base collapsed on April 25 as workers were sand filling the structure. Since then, a number of Government agencies have distanced themselves from the project. The Prime Minister’s office had promised to issue a statement on the matter.