Procurement Commission, Ministry of Housing need to act in relation to this contractor
Reference is made to the court article published in the Stabroek News, dated November 4th, headlined: “Realtor granted $500,000 bail in fraud case.”
While court proceedings are sub judice, precluding comments, I would like to state the following:
1: Mr. Shadiek and SMS Realty and Development have other allegations leveled against them for obtaining money from several persons since 2020 with the promise of building condos at Diamond, EBD; these have not yet materialized!
On the basis of his promises, Mr. Shadiek collected from each future condo owner, $5 million and has been promising to repay them for years.
Having failed to keep his promise of repayment, some of the persons who paid him resorted to take legal action. Lawyers have sent demand warning letters to Mr. Shadiek and this resulted in him attempting to “settle” but issuing post-dated cheques to some of them, promising he would “get money soon.”
2: Alarmingly, despite this fiasco and similar allegations being bandied about against SMS, the Ministry of Housing and Water has awarded Mr. Shadiek and his company contracts to build some of the 287 Elevated Young Professional Houses at LBI, ECD.
This has been a nightmare for the future home owners whose homes he is designated to construct! Monies have been given to him separate from bank allotments but the commensurate work, as stipulated in the phases of the contracts have not yet been done!
Mr. Shadiek, when confronted, “promises” work will be done but week after week, nothing is being done, despite complaints to the site engineers from the Ministry of Housing!
The Public Procurement Commission needs to immediately investigate all government contracts awarded to SMS since Mr. Shadiek boasts he has contracts in Linden as well as on the East Bank because he knows “the right people in high places!”
Furthermore, the Ministry of Housing needs to send objective, independent assessors to examine the dismal state of the work done on the houses assigned to SMS with a view to having these contracts rescinded.