‘Dirty relationship’ responsible for non-payment of US$1.5M Bond-AFC
June 7, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under News
‘Fip’ Motilall’s Performance Bond …
The Alliance for Change has weighed on the fact that Hand in Hand Mutual Fire Insurance Company Limited is yet to make payments to the government as it relates to the US$1.5M Performance Bond that had been issued to Synergy Holdings Inc. headed by Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall. Motilall was awarded a US$15.4M contract to design and construct the Amaila Falls access road.
AFC Chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan blames what he calls an ‘incestuous relationship” involving the stakeholders.
He was speaking specifically to Winston Brassington, Hand in Hand and the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited NICIL).
“It is an extreme example of incestuousness.”
Ramjattan said that his party will continue to speak out against the affair.
He said, “Here it is that the enforcer of that performance bond will have to be Mr Brassington. “But he got shares in Hand in Hand…The whole thing shows what has been a propensity for Mr Brassington not to want Hand in Hand to make the payout of US$1.5M.”
Turning his attention to the Head of State Donald Ramotar, Ramjattan said, “Any decent President would order an immediate investigation into the entirety of this Performance Bond, the Brassingtons, Jonathan and Winston, and would immediately also ask, Winston Brassington to resign.”
Failing the President’s action on the matter the AFC Chairman said that there are no other options available to a political party “except to educate the public as to basic facts here and to let the public understand how their monies and how the Governance structure in this country have deteriorated and degenerated.”
He says that it is ultimately up to an informed public to make their decisions
This money, which on the surface appears payable to the government, is not automatic upon claim, said a source.
Motilall’s performance bond expired on July 2011. That bond was negotiated and brought into force when the contract with Motilall was signed in January 2010, with a duration of eight months.
This means that for the latter half of last year, Synergy Holdings Inc. was operating with an expired bond, pursuant to its stipulations.
The bond did carry a stipulation that claims could be made for six months following its expiration.
Government did lay claim prior to this deadline, but according to a senior official close to the matter, “This doesn’t mean that the claim is automatically valid. All aspects of compliance have to be thoroughly checked.”
The source, knowledgeable on the issue of insurance, explained that Hand-in-Hand will have to conduct investigations on every aspect of the claim before it is accepted or rejected completely.
Reports that the government and Synergy Holdings Inc. still have some balancing up to do to determine who owes whom, could also affect the outcome of the claim made by the government on the performance bond.
