MPs concerned that controversial Bamia Primary...
He lamented that the incomplete school will negatively affect the region’s requested budget which is geared to cater for other development projects in Linden and other communities in Region 10.
“As you know when you cannot complete your projects on time, the technical persons at the Ministry of Finance will use that …to justify …why it should not increase budgetary allocations in your region”, Adams said.
Adams recommended that the government terminate the services of the company hired to do the stalled project.
‘I don’t have confidence in the contractor and with that being said the government should remove this contractor from the project”.
“We are expected that this project be completed during the first quarter of this year because it is long overdue and that happens when you get friends and family involved in projects such as these it is not done properly”, he remarked.
Stabroek News on December 4th, 2023 reported that the construction project was given a 20-month lifespan in November of 2021 and was expected to be completed in July of 2023.
However, since the contractors were not able to finish the project on time, a new deadline was set based on an explanation and request by the contractor.
The new deadline was given as November 16, 2023, and as it stands, the project is not yet ready to be handed over to the Administrative Region.
St8ment Investment Inc the company behind the project was controversially awarded the $346 million contract for the construction of the school.
The company, whose principals are Rawle Ferguson and Kerwin Bollers of Hits and Jams Entertainment along with Aubrey ‘Shanghai’ Major and Kashif Muhammed of the Kashif and Shanghai football tournament, was formed just a few months before bidding for the project and had no proven construction background.
That in itself should have been a subject of continuing comment by the Auditor General’s Report.
The Auditor General’s Report has been criticized in the past for leaving out controversial projects and focusing on many trivial and immaterial matters.
The project comes under the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development and in July of 2021, the bids were opened. Four companies – Bulkan Timber Works Inc ($349,595,065),
St8ment Investment Inc ($346,327,748), Orin’s Supreme Enterprise ($348,726,772), and A Nazir & Son Contracting & General Supplies ($340,549,671) – tendered for the project.
St8ment, with the second-lowest bid, was awarded the contract which was
An intelligence-led operation was conducted around 15:35 hrs yesterday during which Police ranks searched a dredge camp at Frenchman Backdam, Upper Demerara River, and found a shotgun.
The police said in a release that the camp belonged to a 57-year-old gold miner from Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, and is being managed by a 57-year-old man from Crane Housing Scheme, West Coast Demerara.
During the exercise, ranks requested to conduct a search on a metal toolbox, which was in the camp. The manager of the camp produced the key and opened the box in the presence of the ranks. Inside was a 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun, without a signed by the principals of the company and Region 10 Regional Executive Officer (REO) Dwight John.
Since the beginning of the project and up to its current stage, a large percentage of the money was given to the company to complete the work. cartridge.
The manager was arrested and escorted to the Mackenzie Police Station where the firearm was photographed, marked, sealed and lodged. He was placed into Police custody pending further investigations.
Efforts are currently being made to locate the owner of the camp.