Latest update May 10th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 06, 2014 News
Contractors working on Specialty hospital for free
The Alliance For Change questioned the contract for the construction of the Specialty Hospital. Later, it questioned the financing of the works ongoing at Turkeyen where the Specialty Hospital is to be erected.
Yesterday, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr. Roger Luncheon disclosed that the contractors are working with a promise to be paid.
Work on the Specialty Hospital which is to be funded by an Indian line of credit has gone beyond the sum fortuitously voted for it last year. The joint parliamentary opposition was against it but funding was approved when A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament, Volda Lawrence took “ill” just as the vote was to be taken. With her being absent, government had the majority in the vote.
Dr Luncheon recently commented on the fact that works have gone beyond the sum approved. Leader of the Alliance For Change, Khemraj Ramjattan, told the media that he would have tabled, in the National Assembly, questions that will compel the government to say where the money is coming from to pay contractors.
Ramjattan is still to make that move but he did say that he opted to do some “investigative works.” Ramjattan also said that he wants to assess the “atmosphere” following the conclusion of India’s general election.
The political leader had opined that, more than likely, the new government headed by Prime Minister elect Narenda Modi will stop the contract because Surendra Engineering doesn’t possess the competence to construct a building moreover a specialty hospital.
But yesterday Dr. Luncheon rubbished the possibility of the funding being halted. He told the media that the government of Guyana entered into an agreement with the India Exim Bank not the Government of India.
Pointing to the fact that the bank itself is in the process of reviewing the project and it is possible that if the bank is no longer satisfied it can pull the funding, Dr. Luncheon said that the bank is more responsible than that.
He told the media, “I don’t believe that the bank is unaware of the solid contractual agreements that we have been entered into.” He said, however, that if the result of that review is to withhold funding, “somebody will have to think about how to disengage and it is nothing easy to do.”
Dr. Luncheon was questioned about the Specialty Hospital and about how soon the employees attached to the Office of the President, including the Government Information Agency will be paid.
The joint parliamentary opposition has not approved allocations in the line item for Office of the President because it objected to allocations for GINA and National Communications Network.
Luncheon said that the “agony” of those affected by the lack of funding will soon come to an end. They can anticipate payment in the near future.
Dr. Luncheon declined to be more specific on how they will be paid but he will allow staffers to “take the HPS at his word that it will soon be over…they will soon be in receipt of their due earnings.”
He then extended his prophecy to say that the contractors will also be paid “…that matter will soon be attended to as well and I am offering solace to the contractors.”
Luncheon said that the contractors are currently using in-pocket monies to carry out works on the site. This, he said, ranges from labour to the procurement of materials.
The HPS said that funding for the project ceased at the point when the National Assembly disapproved appropriations under the programme that included funding for the Specialty Hospital.
He said that “all workers (contractors and those attached to subvention agencies alike) have worked, and continue to work with the expectation that sooner or later, sooner rather than later, they will be paid…not only those at OP those at CJIA and Specialty Hospital, they all continue to work with an expectation that they will be paid.”
The Cabinet Secretary said that there has been no paperwork for such an agreement between government and contractors. According to Luncheon, there was no need to as funding for the hospital was approved in 2012 hence a “Binding contractual agreement has been entered into.”
Asked if there can be any turning back for the project, Dr. Luncheon said, “There could be but at a cost.” He said that cost would be great.
Since its inception, the Specialty Hospital has been under scrutiny by Guyana’s Parliamentary Opposition. Health Minister, Dr Bheri Ramsaran in December of last year had requested a $34.4 million supplementary funding for the hospital.
Although his request was not approved by the Opposition, the absence of A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Member of Parliament (MP) Volda Lawrence during the voting period made it possible for the Minister to obtain the funds for the hospital.
Preparatory work on the construction of the multi-million-dollar hospital has since commenced and the Health Minister said that the Donald Ramotar Administration was very passionate about seeing the project to completion.
The Opposition contends that the formulation of the project was not transparent.
The construction of the hospital is part of an agreement between the Government of Guyana and the India Exim Bank, for Guyana to use just over US$18M through a line of credit to build the hospital. The hospital is being built to cater for complicated surgeries, ranging from heart operations, organ transplants to cosmetic surgery.
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