Latest update March 29th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 16, 2018 News
A private construction company is accusing the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown of owing it $135M for clean-up works it carried out around the city.
Finance Manager of XL Engineering Aysha Harrop told the Commission of Inquiry, (COI) into City Hall yesterday that the works were conducted during the city-wide cleanup campaign in 2015.
According to Harrop, XL Engineering conducted site cleaning and removal of debris on behalf of City Hall, as well as clearing of weeds in the cemetery from the year 2015.
The work, she added cost a total $150M. Harrop however explained that the company did not sign a contract with City Hall, since the Town Clerk told them the work was an emergency.
“We did not sign a contract. Mr Royston King would always take us to the site and say do the work. It was an emergency, so we don’t need to go through the tender process. Mr King however gave us a letter stipulating how much we still owe the company,” she added.
The witness explained to the commission that although the company received “a small amount”, $135M was still outstanding.
Harrop spoke of one contract the company shared between the Council and the Ministry of Communities for $15M. She however noted that the company only received $9M from that contact.
“When we inquired about the payment Mr King told us that he no longer had the money.”
The witness tendered several documents to support her claims.
Former Deputy Mayor of Georgetown, Sherod Duncan had previously pointed to several instances in which he says Town Clerk King bypassed the prescribed procurement process for the doling out of contracts. Duncan raised concerns at the manner in which the City’s administration dealt with the distribution of contracts.
He particularly highlighted what he described as the wanton abuse by Council’s administration of the Emergency Clause under Section 234 of the Municipal District Council‘s Act Chapter 280:1.
The clause speaks to the variation of tender procedure in cases of emergency.
Duncan noted that the Emergency Clause is applied for almost every contract handed out by City Hall – more particularly by the Office of the Town Clerk.
“If you have an emergency and you can’t go to tender, you are allowed to bypass that system, but you must report to Council afterwards. (However) everything seems to be using the Emergency Clause. I noted this from the time I became a Councillor in 2016,” said Duncan, who also chaired the Legal Affairs Committee of the Georgetown M&CC.
“During my tenure as Councillor, Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee, I have never seen a single contract come before Council for vetting and approval. Except for the parking meter contract, which took months of agitation before the administration yielded to the Councillor’s request to peruse the document, no other contract was forthcoming.
“In fact, it was through the intervention of the Minister of Communities that Councillors were able to have that contract at their disposal.”
“I would argue that around 90 -95 per cent of the work of council is subcontracted out, from acquisition of stationery to vehicles, garbage collection and disposal. So it should involve a process of tender and vetting by Council.”
“But the only tendering process that I can recall published during my time at City Hall is the one for the repair of the Stabroek Market Clock. “
Besides the controversial Parking Meter contract, the former Deputy Mayor listed the $125M contract which was handed to Chung Global for the clearing of Le Repentir Cemetery among the contracts which were listed as emergencies.
“And that is why it is my humble estimation, that there is a wanton abuse by the Council’s administration of the Emergency , because you cannot manage a Council for three years using ‘emergency’ in every instance to bypass the tendering process, “Duncan stated.
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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