Latest update May 14th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 22, 2012 News
China Harbour Engineering Company Limited has stated that the company has received a letter of apology from Guyanese foreman, Mahendra Sugrim, after he admitted that he was the person who did not pay the workers.
CHEC in a statement said that “the person contracted to build a road to facilitate survey exercises for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Expansion project issued a letter of apology on Saturday for the non-payment of workers after it was disclosed that the contractor had the sole responsibility of paying the workers”.
The press release further stated that the contractor, Mahendra Sugrim, in a letter to Wei Jiang, CHEC’s Business Development Manager in Guyana, said, “I apologise for the trouble I brought to you and China Harbour and the misinformation I shared with the media…You have made all the payments, as agreed to me and you have even gone beyond that, and made additional payments and that was my responsibility to pay my workers.”
Jiang indicated that CHEC had agreed to pay Sugrim an advance of 22.85 per cent of the cost which was done. The balance is due on completion of the road.
However, after repeated requests from Sugrim for more money, although the work was incomplete, additional sums were paid amounting to 82.86 per cent of the total cost.
Sugrim, in his letter, acknowledged his inability to get the work done in the stipulated time.
“Sorry again for your great loss as a result of my delays. I will do my best to ensure that the road is completed and will also work towards ensuring that I do not encounter further challenges that would cause a longer delay in completing the road.”
Jiang assured that CHEC is fully committed to abiding by all the labour laws in force in Guyana and the company looks forward to working closely with all stakeholders and work on the CJIA expansion project continues.
Angry workers on Friday attacked the Chinese managers. Sugrim had told Kaieteur News that he signed a contract with Chinese national, Wei Jiang, called “David” earlier in June.
According to Sugrim, the original agreement was for him to create 500 meters of “roadway” so that machines such as high powered drills could be brought through the heavily swamped area. All of the works that have started at the back of the airport are part of a feasibility study underway.
“De contract say we had to create 500 meters of roadway…plus six cross roads of 70 meters each,” Sugrim told Kaieteur News. The man explained that he was given a $160,000 at the beginning when works started in June.
An additional $300,000 was given to him some time after.
The foreman said that the remainder was supposed to be given to him yesterday, so that he could pay his workers. Sugrim claimed that he was not paid.
The project is being done by China Harbour Engineering Company Limited (CHEC), at a cost of US$138M. China Harbour through its parent firm China Communications Construction Company had been debarred by the World Bank, under its Fraud and Corruption Sanctioning Policy.
China Habour has argued that the blacklisting was inherited from the previous owner of the construction company.
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