Amaila Falls $15.4M road project…Clear evidence of inefficiency exists “…. AG must prosecute or face no-confidence motion” – Ramjattan
Dr Krishna Narine and SRKN’s involvement in monitoring the project and approving payment certificates for Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall’s Synergy Holdings Inc., even as the ‘road’ contractor “made a mess” of a US$15.4M project, is “clear evidence of inefficiency” and as such Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, must move to the courts to prosecute and seek recompense immediately.
This is the opinion of Chairman of the Alliance for Change (AFC), Khemraj Ramjattan, who says that now that the opposition has forced the government to provide the contract documents on various projects, it also inherently illustrates that the government was in possession of evidence of corruption all along.
Ramjattan says that the Attorney General, instead of attempting to hoodwink the nation with court action as it relates to Parliamentary Committees as well as the recent court action against the Guyana Cricket Board, should move to prosecute SRKN.
Ramjattan says that the Attorney General, who is the legal advisor to the Government, must move to the courts with prosecutorial action against Dr Narine, who Ramjattan opines clearly did not do the job that he was paid to do with the taxpayers’ dollars.
The AFC Chairman says that should Nandlall refuse to prosecute, then the AFC will definitely be considering and pushing for a Parliamentary no-confidence motion.
Should a Parliamentary no-confidence motion be approved in the House then Nandlall will have no option but to resign as Minister of Legal Affairs, which Ramjattan says is standard in a democracy.
Ramjattan said that he is certain that he will receive the support of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) in pursuing this course of action. He reminded that opposition parties played their roles when they pushed for the contract documents to be released.
Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh has made publicly available, the contract documents involving the proposed Marriott Hotel, the proposed CJIA expansion project, as well as the Consultancy Project which Dr Narine landed to oversee and approve the works which were being undertaken by Synergy Holdings Inc.
Dr Narine was handsomely paid to undertake this task for which many have opined that he, too, failed miserably.
Carl Greenidge, the point man for APNU, told this publication that while they have not addressed any of the documents in detail as yet, they are currently assembling a team to undertake the task. He said that APNU will also be pushing for a full parliamentary review of the documents which would determine the requisite course of action necessary to remedy the situation.
Under the contract with SRKN, the client, which in this case was the Government of Guyana, could have terminated the contract if, “the consultant does not remedy a failure in the performance of their obligations under the contract, within 30 days after being notified or within any further period as the client may subsequently determine in writing.”
At the commencement of the project, Motilall’s credibility and ability to undertake the project came under intense scrutiny. Ramjattan noted that Dr. Narine was presiding as consultant over and throughout the failings of Motilall even though the government could have terminated this arrangement which cost Guyana an additional $63.5M.
The government never invoked this clause thereby allowing SRKN to keep its $63M contract to watch over Motilall (who continued to fail miserably) even though it had at its disposal another clause which provided termination of the contract at the sole discretion “and for any reason whatsoever” by the client (government).
Dr. Narine presented to NICIL a financial proposal for the project he was vying for and this proposal was also supplemented with an additional proposal.
In the initial proposal, there was a provision for $6M to purchase a duty free, double-cab, diesel engine, 4WD vehicle, along with another sum of $350,000 for associated costs such as insurance and licence among others. There was an additional provision of $250,000 for the purchase of GPS tracking equipment bringing the total provision for Dr. Narine’s duty free vehicle for the project to $6.6M. This was also submitted for Cabinet’s approval.
Another $12M was also submitted in the proposal as payment for a five-man team consisting of Dr. Narine, the project manager, a roads engineer John Lewis, an environmentalist, Hemwantie Tiwari-Singh, surveyor Neville Thorne and a driver.
Dr. Narine was set to receive $1.650M for 30 days of work and the engineer $3.6M for 60 days of work.
That additional financial proposal submitted by Dr. Narine also catered for an additional $4M to purchase a duty free vehicle to be used on the project along with financial provisions for associated costs such as insurance. Both proposals for the consultancy project (which was subsequently approved) also catered for meals and hotel fees while in Mahdia, Mabura Hills and several other locations along the way.
Hotel fees were also catered for the crew while they travelled from Mona Falls to Amaila Falls. There are reports that Motilall’s failure had even forced Dr. Narine of SRKN to attempt to take over management of the project in full. Motilall has since denied that SRKN was forced to take over management of the project but rather said that he only assisted. The contract was eventually terminated with Fip Motilall and his equipment was seized.