…and Govt. can’t do anything about Surinamese stone importation – says Minister Gaskin
Due to the contractual terms of the agreement signed between the Government of Guyana and China
Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), the state cannot prevent the contracting company from importing 300,000 tonnes of crushed stone from Suriname for the Cheddi Jagan International Airport expansion.
This was relayed to the press by Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin yesterday during his party’s media conference. Gaskin also said that his government played no role in the procurement of the stones.
He said that the previous government had inked the contract with CHEC to do the expansion work. Gaskin believes that it is possible that the People’s Progressive Party Civic government did not foresee that CHEC would source the stone from a foreign entity.
According to the politician the contract does not contain any condition that specifies the source from which the stone should be procured. However, he said that the sourcing of sand had a limitation whereby it had to be procured within a certain radius of the airport.
“Under the terms of the contract I don’t think the government of Guyana can tell them (CHEC) that they can’t procure stones from outside of Guyana.”
Gaskin was reminded that it was the APNU-AFC government which had made some amendments to the contract. He was then asked why is it that greater consideration was not placed on ensuring that local businesses could have supplied all the stone.
Gaskin responded that he is unsure of what aspects of the contract were amended. However, he maintained that the essential conditions of the contract were signed before his party came into power and therefore should not be made to answer for what is currently happening.
He believes that this particular issue would not warrant the termination of the contract. Despite this, the Minister said that he strongly believes that local businesses should be engaged to benefit from public projects.
CHEC is securing the stones from Surinamese state-owned company Grassalco at the cost of US$7.5M. Grassalco and Zhong Da International Engineering Company will partner to deliver the material.
Local stone supplier, Toolsie Persaud Quarries had complained about the procurement of the stones from a foreign company. Chief Executive Officer of the company, Rajesh Persaud informed this publication that his company has in stock 90,000 tonnes presently.
He said that in Guyana there is two times the amount of stone needed for the expansion of the airport. According to Persaud his company and its employees depend on contracts like the airport expansion to keep operations going.
Persaud reported that the stone produced in Guyana is of a higher engineering specification than any other territory in the region.
Gaskin said that there has been no examination to ascertain what was responsible for a foreign company being chosen to supply the stones. “That would certainly help us to understand what some of the challenges facing local businesses are, was it the price? Was it the capacity to deliver?”
According to the politician he does not believe the contractor would have procured from outside of Guyana unless it was to the company’s benefit to do so.”
He said that having done such an assessment Government would be able to be cognizant of the challenges facing local businesses.