Specialty Hospital will be completed – Dr Luncheon

Government is still very keen on seeing the completion of the US$18 million Specialty Hospital and has built a stronger alliance with the provider of the concessionary loan financing to see it become a reality.

Construction on the state-of-the-art medical facility was halted last September after Government took the contract from Surendra Engineering Company Limited (SECL), following the discovery of major discrepancies.

A month after yanking the contract, Government, through the Attorney General Chambers, had also filed a lawsuit against the India-based company for in excess of US$100 million for alleged fraud, breach of contract, and delays in works done. All this was done while the company strongly contended that it had done nothing wrong.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Cabinet Secretary, Dr Roger Luncheon said, while he could not give an insightful comment on the legal proceedings, Government was confident that it would be able to recover the Gy$4 billion that was unlawfully used up by Surendra.

Meanwhile, Luncheon told the Guyana Times International on Wednesday that subsequent to the termination of the contract, Central Government had moved to inform both the Government of India and the funding agency, the Exim bank, of its determination to see the hospital to completion.

“It is in that regard that Government has reached out to the Indian Government with certain proposals with regard to the future, how specific concessionary loan financing can continue to be provided and utilised for the completion of this project,” Luncheon told this publication when asked for an update.

He said Government was awaiting a response from the Indian Government before the next step is taken.

The Surendra Engineering Company was contracted by Guyana’s Government back in September 2012 to design, build, equip, test, deliver, install, complete and commission a Surgical Specialty Hospital located at Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown. The contract was signed to the tune of US$18,180,000.

But according to government, the company had failed to perform its obligations under the terms of the contract and give an account for the advance payment of US$4,285,440.

Instead, the company submitted fabricated, unsigned and sometimes inflated invoices with no evidence of actual payments made or any documents supporting the expenditure claimed.

A letter was also produced and purported to be signed by a D Singh, Director of Financial Institutions, Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, confirming that it has “more than five years in the reinsurance and coinsurance business” and had been  authorised for those operations since 1988.

In the wake of rumours that the Indian firm might have been liquidated, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall had said that Government was continuing with its lawsuit against the company.

Nandlall said that while he would be making enquiries about the claim, Government will not be backing out of the fight. In the legal document filed by the Attorney General Chambers, Government said that the company was found guilty of fraudulent practices and breach of the terms, conditions and warranties of the contract it had signed.

The Attorney General told GTI that Government would be moving to serve notice of the lawsuit through advertisement after it was unable to do so since the company’s local office was abandoned. He could not at that time say how soon that would be.