Utility companies’ causing delays – contractor

Timehri roundabout

By Jarryl Bryan

Far from being responsible for delays to the Timehri roundabout project, Gaico Construction and General Services is maintaining that utility infrastructure impeded the project. However, the company is aiming to complete the project by this year end.
This is according to Gaico’s Chief Executive Officer Komal Singh, during an interview with Guyana Times. The Auditor General’s 2017 report had flagged his company for the delayed project, despite receiving $30.8 million in advances.
But Singh noted that the State auditors did not take into account work done on the site in order to prepare for the project. According to the CEO, his company delivered approximately 2000 tons of crusher run within a week of the contract, a cost of almost $20 million.
In addition, Singh said Gaico demolished and rebuilt a fence; all part of preparatory works he said exceeded the mobilisation advances they received. He then alluded to the sub terrain lines and pipes the company encountered from utility companies like the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT).
“Any contract you sign, you sign in good faith that there are no utility issues,” Singh said. “But when we got there, the GTT wire was in the way. And obviously you cannot go and dig. Had we gone and dug and dug up the cable, we would have shut down the whole airport. We had to put the project on hold.”
“It (bond) can’t forfeit, because it’s not the contractor’s fault. The project is ongoing. The performance bond is in effect. It’s because of the issue we had on the (utility companies) end. If the Auditor had identified the material on site, it’s valued almost $20 million. And if they had valued the fence demolition, they would have found that the money that was paid (advance) was exceeded.”
That being said, they have a new timeline of this year end that they are working with. According to Singh, they are still working with GTT to resolve outstanding issues, such as approval to run a line through the utility company’s compound.
“We’re hoping to achieve everything by the end of this year. We should be paving in another week or so. We would have done since last month but the water stuff was in the way. The GPL power cable was in our way,” he said.

The report
According to Auditor General Deodat Sharma’s 2017 report, the contractor was given advance payments totalling $30.8 million, with $628,568 being paid to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) as Withholding Tax. The contractor, who was awarded the contract out of 11 bidders, was supposed to construct a single lane rural roundabout and bypass road.
The AG revealed that he examined payment vouchers, contract documents and even paid the site a physical visit a few months ago. Among his findings were that the works were incomplete and behind schedule.
While Gaico had mobilised on site, at the time only excavation and general earth work had started. And this was limited to two small sections of the existing roadway. The works were expected to be done at the existing two lane road coming from the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and the four land highway.
The AG also revealed that the advance payment bond, meant to be a security in case the contractor defaulted after being paid up front, expired since December 4, 2017. As of August 2018, only 19.5 per cent of the advance payment had been recovered.

In its response, the Public Infrastructure Ministry explained that complications from removing utility connections in the area resulted in the delays on the project.
“The contract time of 24 weeks had elapsed, and the works were not completed due to the complications that arose with regards to the removal of utilities from the work area, namely GTT (Guyana Telephone and Telegraph) and GWI (Guyana Water Incorporated).”
“These issues arose and required additional $8.5 million to remove GTT utilities and $11.5 million for GWI utilities. These delays caused work to be stalled until June 2018,” the Ministry had said in explaining the delays.