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CJIA’s Chinese contractor denies it breached regulations in Jamaica
The Chinese contractor of the Timehri airport multi-million-dollar expansion project has denied reports that it breached regulations in Jamaica with regards to contracts.
China Harbour Engineering Corporation (CHEC) in a statement yesterday was responding to a report published Wednesday in Kaieteur News from the South China Morning Post website.
A draft impression of the proposed new terminal building at the Timehri airport.
In that article, Jamaica’s Minister of Transport, Works and Housing Omar Davies, was quoted as telling his Parliament in early October that a forensic audit on two projects involving Chinese companies, including CHEC, had revealed “a host of occurrences, which demonstrate complete disregard for normal and well-established government practices”.
“The report from the forensic auditor has unearthed wanton disregard for the conventions and procedures established by the government of Jamaica,” he said. “These breaches of procurement guidelines have drained precious budgetary resources and undermined the very foundation of public institutional integrity.”
Programme funds were used for unrelated projects, the news report said. The Chinese parties did not adhere to fund allocations approved by the Jamaican parliament and Ministry of Finance, and subcontractors were arbitrarily selected, Davies told the parliament.
According to the same report, in December last year, former Transport Minister, Mike Henry resigned following criticism of the project, the government news agency, JIS, reported.
However, in an issued statement, rejecting the report which was reprinted in the Kaieteur News, CHEC said that the report was incorrect.
“Nowhere in the statement was CHEC accused of committing these breaches nor was the company mentioned in relation to any wrongdoing,” CHEC said yesterday.
The two projects mentioned in the reprinted article are the US$400 million Jamaica Development Infrastructure Programme (JDIP) and the US$68 million Palisadoes Shoreline Protection and Rehabilitation Works. They are being partly financed by the China Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank). Exim Bank is providing US$340 million for the project
The Chinese firm said that since it started in 2012, the JDIP has been and continues to be implemented, administered and managed by the Government of Jamaica through the Ministry of Transport and Works (renamed since January 2012 as Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing) and the National Works Agency.
“China Harbour is the general contractor for the project and as such has no responsibility for Government of Jamaica procurement, administration or management.”
Indeed, CHEC said, the same Minister is on record as having praised CHEC for its good work on the projects which the company is undertaking in Jamaica.
The Timehri airport project is Guyana’s second most expensive to date and worth over US$150M.
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