Ministry in discussions with IDB on Sheriff St project

Dear Editor,

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure wishes to inform the general public that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has suspended disbursements under the loan Lo2741 Road Network Upgrade and Expansion Programme (RNUEP) as a result of significant breaches of the Loan Agreement, specifically to Section 4.08 Environmental and Social Management.

In addition to the aforementioned, the Contractor has not been implementing the required traffic safety and control measures of the site-specific Traffic Control Plans. These non-compliances were officially documented by the Ministry and conveyed several times to Sinohydro.

In fact, for more than twelve (12) months, the Ministry has consistently issued numerous Notices to Correct (NTCs) to Sinohydro on various environmental and social non-compliances, as well as on infractions related to traffic safety and control. Our most recent correspondence on these matters was October 25, 2019.

The Ministry would have observed a general lack of routine maintenance being conducted by the Contractor as per Contract during the construction period. Some road maintenance of potholes was done in September 2019, but the cleaning of drains, maintenance of street lighting, clearing of verges have not been done.

Nonetheless, it must be noted that there has been an effort by the Contractor to comply with the safety regulations in part, however there are still the matters of new sites and areas where drainage works are completed, that have been left in a deplorable and unsafe manner such as open drains, protruding steel, lack of pedestrian walkways / facilities, lack of signs and barriers as a result of several open work sites, lack of retro-reflectivity as well as the poor construction quality of signs and barriers as a result of which the barriers have fallen on the ground; and flaggers either not being present, or not performing the tasks of regulating traffic at the construction areas.

The Ministry has been in discussions with the IDB regarding the measures to be adopted by the Contractor to facilitate the resumption of the disbursement of funds inclusive of a plan to correct all the misgivings under the contractual clauses.

Brief History of project

On December 11, 2017, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure awarded a contract for the rehabilitation and enhancement of the Sheriff St and Mandela Avenue to Sinohydro Corporation Ltd (China) for the sum of G$6,469,260,304 (US$31,027,627.36).

An Advance Payment as well as a sum for the Contractor’s Mobilization was paid to the Contractor. Based on poor construction progress to date as compiled in Interim Payment Certificates, the Contractor has only repaid a meagre 34.7% of the aforementioned Advance Payment.

In addition, the sum that is due to the Contractor is minuscule when compared to the unrepaid Advance. The Ministry would have also paid for materials on site, such as pipes, GWI fittings etc. to the benefit of the Contractor.

Unfortunately, it would appear that