Patterson is demanding answers on CJIA $ 14B bond status
– Edghill says all bonds are enforced
Former Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson
Kaieteur News – Member of Parliament and former Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson on Friday called on the Government to inform the status of bonds put in place by the Government and the China Harbor Engineering Corporation (CHEC) for the renewal of the Gardens. Jagan International Airport (CJIA). Following problems with the quality of the work done by CHEC, the contractor, Patterson had indicated that the government could have tapped into the bonds totaling some US $ 14 billion. After Patterson repeated this during his budget speech on Friday, Senior Public Works Minister Juan Edghill told Kaieteur News last night that the bonds are currently being enforced, and that Patterson is speaking “outright nonsense ”.
“Mr. The speaker, included in the 2021 budget, is the amount of G $ 2.5B earmarked for the CJIA expansion, ”Patterson said of the funds set aside by the government to complete the project. “However, the nation was told in December 2020, that contractor CHEC was going to carry out additional G $ 1.8B work which included extending the terminal building as well as 2 new passenger bridges – so the question is why taxpayers foot another. bill of G $ 2.5B? After the contractor’s extra work, what will the $ 2.5B be spent on? Solutions are needed as to who will carry out this work and what procurement process will be used? ”
These funds add to the increased US $ 150M already spent on this project, now in its tenth year. Initially, the Government had committed US $ 12M to top up the US $ 138M loan.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill
“Mr. The Speaker said, “Patterson told the House on Friday,” what should be the most immediate concern for citizens is the status of the contractor’s performance and retention bonds. ”
Patterson said the bonds were important because since the end of the loan period, China Export Import Bank (EXIM) paid the last of its US $ 138M loan to Guyana for the port refurbishment. Patterson claimed the bonds expired on December 31, 2020.
“That is,” he said, “CHEC can walk off site today, and the Ministry and the country will lose US $ 14M with no other right than redress in the courts – a completely unsatisfactory and unacceptable situation.”
Speaking to Kaieteur News last night, Edghill said two bonds are needed for operating contracts – the performance bonds and advance payment. He also mentioned the retaining bond, which insures that the contractor would make corrections to defective infrastructure, during a defects liability period.
“You have to have a performance bond, which guarantees the performance of the project, which has always been enforced since I came into office,” said Edghill. “And I have told the Chinese that if they don’t perform, we will withdraw the performance bond, and then, secondly, there is what is called a pre-payment bond, which is money you would have received onwards hand and like you work, it is deducted. And then there’s a retaining bond as well. Because when you finish doing the work, there is a period of liability liability where money has to be saved if anything goes wrong. All bonds are enforced and are released based on performance, and things of that nature. “