Defective works stalled Mabaruma solar farm project, contract terminated

Dear Editor,

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure wishes to respond to the claims in an article published in Stabroek News on Monday, October 14, 2019 under the headline ‘Stalled Mabaruma solar farm project being reclaimed by forest- Region One Chairman’.

On Monday, the Chief Executive Officer of the Hinterland Electrification Company Incorporated (HECI), Mr. Horace Williams reported to the Ministry that the Mabaruma solar farm has not been functional to date due to defective works by the contractor. In 2017, the contract was awarded post-public tender to a German company to construct the 400KW solar farm. The works were scheduled to be completed by 2018. Unfortunately, due to a number of factors - most significantly, severe weather conditions causing damage to the electrical infrastructurethe timeframes were not met. Nevertheless, Mr. Williams pointed out that once the structural aspect was completed, the installation and testing aspect commenced to verify the equipment’s performance when it was discovered that the systems were not working as required.

The contractor was engaged by the Ministry about the performance of the systems, but was reluctant to carry out further works to rectify the issues. “We ended up in a dispute with the contractor about whose responsibility it is to replace these items following the lightning strike. We concluded that the contractor was responsible because the contract stipulated that they were supposed to provide equipment to safeguard against these types of things,” Mr. Williams added.

Further, he emphasized that the Government Electrical Inspectorate conducted a test on the grounding of lightning protection systems and found that these did not meet the specifications. As a consequence, he said the company acknowledged that the contractor failed to meet the terms of the contract, which was subsequently terminated in September 2019, despite numerous efforts to amicably resolve the matter.

Moving forward, the CEO noted that the Guyana Energy Agency in collaboration with HECI is working to replace the damaged transformer. In fact, he posited that bids have already been invited for the supply of the transformer. Additionally proposals are soon to be invited to complete the outstanding works on the solar farm.

Lastly, the Ministry would like to highlight a discrepancy with the cost of this solar farm which is actually being constructed for $227,706,890 and not $264M as is being peddled by the Chairman of Region One.

Once completed, the project will serve to benefit thousands of residents settled in Mabaruma who look forward to the use of this solar farm. The Government is committed to seeing this project through to its completion for the comfort and development of Mabaruma.

I thank you for the opportunity to provide the facts on the status of this project and look forward to your support as we work towards the betterment of all.

Yours faithfully,

Davina Ramdass,

Public Relations Officer, Ministry of Public Infrastructure