Lord simpletons are easy to fool. 

hOW COME A sNAKEOIL sALESMAN LIKE YOU CANT fool THE gUYANESE pEOPLE???

US$200M Skeldon plant… Factory 65% operational, but only produces 20%

Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

 - Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, on Thursday said that the Skeldon Sugar Factory is operating just over 50 per cent of its capacity, and that millions of dollars being spent to modify the factory will still not bring it to its full operational capacity.
The Skeldon estate was designed to produce 110,000 tonnes of sugar per annum. In 2010, production was 33,237 tonnes and in 2011, production was 29,410 tonnes.
Former President Bharrat Jagdeo had vowed to see the factory up to its full capacity.
Responding to questions from People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Member of Parliament, Dr. Vishwa Mahadeo, and Ramsammy said that the factory is “operating at an average 60 to 65 percent capacity.”
He said that redesign works by South African firm, Bosch, will start after the current crop.
However, Ramsammy pointed out that critical works such as modification to the punt dumper design and replacement of the structure is not catered for in the Bosch contract.
The defects which will be fixed due to the Bosch redesign works are those related to the bagasse feeding system and the cane conveyor system. Installing a condensate tank and obtaining a clean water supply to the factory are also on the cards.
Dr. Ramsammy said that the Skeldon factory has been providing power to the national grid.
“In terms of the supply to the national grid electricity, the answer is yes. We are supplying to the national grid. Power is supplied continuously to the grid on an hourly basis averaging 5.5 to 6 megawatts,” he related.
In addition, he said that during peak periods as much as eight to 10 megawatts are supplied to the national grid. This is done using the turbo generators that use bio fuel or “bagasse.”
Ramsammy said that a comprehensive continuous maintenance programme is in place at Skeldon.
The Agriculture Minister said that an inadequate supply of sugar cane is one of the reasons why the factory is not operating at its full potential.
He said that an estimated 2,600 hectares remained to be brought into operation. Of this, 782 hectares are located within the estate property and 1,845 hectares belong to private farmers.
Bosch is being paid US$130,000 to design the modifications that are needed at the Skeldon plant.
The estate was commissioned at a cost of US$181 million in August 2009, and was hailed as the boon to the survival of the sugar industry.
However, the factory has been plagued by numerous problems and has not been able to function as was intended. The establishment of the factory was part of a modernisation plan by GuySuCo that was not achieved. The project involves expanded cane cultivations, the establishment of a refinery, and the co-generation of electricity for the national grid. The factory was constructed with a combination of self-generated funds and loans from the Caribbean Development Bank, the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Guyana. The Project Engineer was Booker Tate, UK Ltd and the Contractor was CNTIC Ltd.

The vision and wisdom of the Bar Rat - beg for $45 mil and waste $200 mil

You mean to say the PPP fooled the Chinese?  If they could do that, they and wasting their talents running Guyana.  They should come to the US and head up trade groups to negotiate with the Chinese.

The vision and wisdom of the Jagabat - pay $1 billion US for a hydro plant worth $500 mil

Tiefishness become vision and wisdom nowadays, thanks to the admiration by simpletons

How did you determine the plant "worth"?

Take a look at contemporary plants being built all over the world. There is a ballpark figure for cost per magawatt. Even in the most corrupt countries on the planet, plants are being built for half the cost of the Amaila Falls plant but you can defend the tiefery if you please. If it was the black party in Guyana building this plant for this outrageous cost, you would have been up in arms already.

THE VISION AND WISDOM OF BJ

Govt., Synergy Holdings fighting over ‘junk’ equipment

-former senior employees relate horror stories about road project

The matter before the High Court involving Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall of Synergy Holdings Inc and the

Controversial Contractor Makeshwar ‘Fip’Motilal

Attorney General has been postponed until Tuesday as the Attorney General Anil Nandlall is out of the jurisdiction.
But this has not quelled the brewing controversy over Motilall’s failed project.
Some of Motilall’s former employees are now relating horror stories about the working conditions they endured while working on the road to Amaila Falls.
The equipment for which the two entities namely Synergy Holdings Inc (Motilall) and the Government are battling over have been described as ‘junk’ by senior personnel flown in from the US and attached to Synergy Holdings to satisfy the contractual obligations to the Government.
The equipment that Motilall had brought into the country was all bought using the advance US$1.5M along with a second advance of US$750,000 which was to be later deducted.
Motilall had only conceded to using some of the US$1.5M to purchase equipment and to ship them to Guyana.
The equipment purchased is said to value the same amount as the shipping costs.
The alleged faulty equipment has been blamed by the overseas experts for several accumulative months of delays as almost each day some of the equipment had broken down.
It was pointed out to this publication that most of the mileage on the machines was over 300,000 hours.
Most of the equipment are said to be more than a decade old, “ready to be discarded for salvage or scrap….Trucks, excavators, bull dozers broke down almost daily.”
It was said that “You could not plan for anything…there was always the fear that the machine working one day would become nonoperational next day.”
A former employee of Synergy Holdings also said that all of the equipment was old.
According to the source, two excavators had to be abandoned after they became stuck in swampland.
“He had third hand and fourth hand equipment.  The bulldozers and the ‘alligator’ trucks used to break down. He had no new equipment; even the pickups were old.
“He had a mechanic but he got fed-up because he had to be moving from one place to the next to fix equipment that break down.

Another piece of Synergy Holdings Inc Equipment

According to the source, the firm’s managers were forced to abandon two excavators that were stuck deep in swampland last year.
“The two excavators still in the swamp. They had to be discarded because it would have cost too much to try to pull them out.
Experts say that the equipment have all outlived their usefulness on large scale projects such as the access road that Synergy Holdings Inc had been contracted to undertake.
This publication has also learnt that the equipment that Motilall had secured for the project was never adequate and further even if there is enough equipment and contractors, given the scope of the works, the April deadline was certainly unrealistic.
The expert told this publication that at best with optimum weather and resources the project can be completed by next October.
The existing schedule prepared by Synergy Holdings Inc illustrates various activities but are all unrelated to each other,” according to the expert that this publication spoke with.
“It was basically a bar chart that had no relation to the work breakdown structures for the whole project…Each activity was shown being independent, the entire project was to be wrapped up in the latter part of March, 2012…The schedule was in fact a testament to the incompetence of Synergy,” according to one of the former construction managers who was flown in from Florida.
Motilall is said to also have worked his way through at least five construction managers in a four month period, all of whom have severed ties with Synergy Holdings Inc.
Each of the Construction managers is reportedly owed significant sums of money; some as much as US$50,000.
The first construction manager is said to have stayed for only three weeks, while another, Louis Espinoza, refused to live at the site due to the poor living conditions.

A broken down Synergy Holdings Inc branded truck

John Kassim, the fourth manager, stayed for a month but returned to the United States as a result of the faulty equipment, poor management and non-payment.
“My problem with the project was the outdated equipment, lack of fuel and Synergy owner’s (Motilall) total failure to understand the project,” said one of the Construction managers who added also that, “There was no defined goal…The equipment brought to complete the job were not up to the standard needed to work in a remote region.”
It was said too that “There was no fuel…There was no coordination with the field….The field staff had no hard copies of plans they could look for review or construction.”
One of the sectors besieged with problems for the contractor Motilall was Section Number Two, which cuts through wetlands but because of Motilall’s insistence on cutting corners the road was not built to a satisfactory height.
Motilall insisted that the road be built 18 inches above the land level as per his contract but, according to the experts, given the nature of the soil, should there be one heavy rainfall in that section of the road it will inevitably be washed away.
“It has to be built higher because of the nature and density of the soil there.”
On the same section Number Two, fuel was said to always be in short supply for the project.
“My assessment of the equipment requirement meant we needed about 250 gallons per day for the work to run the Sector Number Two smoothly…That quantity of fuel was never delivered to the site…We would receive about 250 gallons per week.”
It was pointed out also that “on many occasions, we did not have enough fuel to run basic camp equipment like the water pump or the generator needed for the night…The project never had a regular supply of fuel…The owner never brought the adequate amount.”
The owner of Synergy is not a civil engineer and according to the experts that he had hired to undertake works in Guyana, he “has never built a road before.”
In an effort to point out Motilall’s shortcomings as a contractor, one of his former  construction managers related for this publication that, “for a road of this nature and magnitude, the contract is always split with at least  three contractors…This is because of the manpower and equipment required for different work phases -bridges and roads.”
Motilall, the owner of Synergy “could never fathom this difference and the inherent lack of knowledge and experience became evident in the way the road was managed.”
The expert said that, “Any experienced road engineer knows that when you start building a road, you start from the first point (in our case, Sector Number ) and work your way through the project…You learn and fine tune your equipment scheduling based on your experience earned. In the end, you have something to show to the client.”
He suggested that, “as a small contractor you do not tackle all sectors of a project at once.” Synergy Holdings is said to have had neither the capital nor the equipment to do such a work at all seven sectors.
“Their approach in trying to manage all seven sectors reflected the incompetence of Synergy in not fully understanding the scope of work involved…The problem was compounded further by the fact that this was a design -build contract…You have to design the project to a substantial completion phase before you can start work of such magnitude.”
Another source of worry for the access road was the supply of laterite.
At the termination of the contract, Motilall was said to have completed some 40 per cent of the accumulative works but as it relates to road complete to specification with laterite, only nine of the 161km was complete.
“There was confusion regarding the suitability of laterite available for the road at Sector Number Two.”
It was pointed out that the only available source of laterite was a pit about 13 miles from Camp Number Two.
According to Thakur Prasad (the laterite expert in Camp Number Two), some of the laterite used earlier was not suitable for the road. The soil was either too wet or too dry.
“If Synergy had been able to understand how soil works, the problem would have been resolved by the addition of water to the soil (if it is too dry)…As there was no water truck at the site, the laterite could never be brought to the max optimum density of 12 per cent…This percentage of water addition was decided by the soil technician for the project…The owners of Synergy could never make this connection as they had no experience of road compaction.”
Motilall’s inability to pay competent experts also led to inexperienced personnel undertaking surveys in the field to prepare designs for the road.
The initial ground survey work was performed by Engenuity Group, a prominent engineering and surveying firm in West Palm Beach, Florida.
According to one of the senior personnel that worked on the project, he began having suspicions and met with the owners of Engenuity Group, the initial surveyors.
“It was then explained (by Engenuity Group) that the project was real but that I should be careful of payment and that they were owed money.”
This publication has also learnt that apart from the woes with the Construction managers, Motilall also had problems with the original project engineer who had resigned due to lack of payment.
Engenuity Group had also refused to turn over initial survey works done to Synergy Holdings Inc as a result of non-payment and as such the company had to resort to using inexperienced surveyors.

THE VISION AND WISDOM OF BJ

 

 

Govt., Synergy Holdings fighting over ‘junk’ equipment

February 4, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under News 

 

-former senior employees relate horror stories about road project

The matter before the High Court involving Makeshwar ‘Fip’ Motilall of Synergy Holdings Inc and the

Controversial Contractor Makeshwar ‘Fip’Motilal

Attorney General has been postponed until Tuesday as the Attorney General Anil Nandlall is out of the jurisdiction.

WHERE IS THE $600 MILLION PAID TO FIP?

OH NANDALALA THE RUM SUCKER RUN AND HIDE!

President Ramotar says GPL rental costs are disturbing, if true

US$900,000 generator rented for US$720,000 annually…
President Donald Ramotar yesterday toured operations of the cash-strapped Guyana Power and

President Donald Ramotar

Light Company (GPL) and did not dismiss questions raised about the lack of prudent spending at the utility.
“If what they say is true, it is obviously something to be concerned about,” Ramotar said regarding statements by GPL officials that a new Caterpillar generator costs US$900, 000, but the company rented 12 generators last year at a cost of US$720,000 each.
The revelation comes at a time when GPL is lamenting a mammoth fuel bill coupled with a growing demand for electricity.
The government plans to plough $6 billion into the company this year, saying this is meant to address its financial constraints and avoid already burdened consumers from paying higher electricity tariffs.
Ramotar toured the major operations of the company, namely its Kingston and Sophia operations in Georgetown, and those at Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara.
“Power is important to a country’s development and I wanted to get an appreciation of the challenges that GPL faces,” Ramotar told Kaieteur News at the end of his visit to the Kingston operations.
For Ramotar, the biggest challenge GPL faces is to develop the capacity to catch up with the growing demand. He said that the company would need to generate another 20 megawatts of electricity even before the much touted Amaila Falls Hydroelectricity Project begins operations.
On Sunday, Kaieteur News reported that GPL last year paid a hefty US$8.6M to rent 12 Caterpillar generating sets for a period of one year when it could have spent just US$2.2M more to buy them all.
Last week, the company said that renting the generators was the only feasible option, as opposed to buying them.
Each of the generating sets is actually rented for a base rental of US$43,000 every month, whether they are used or not. If they are used, that base rental only caters for 200 hours of work. Anything over the 200 hours automatically bumps up the rental to US$60,000, monthly.
GPL sources confirmed that GPL worked the generators to the maximum; therefore what it has been paying is the full US$60,000 rental, per month.
This means that rental cost for the 12 generators amounted to some US$720,000 for each month last year.
In any given month, GPL loses a few days of work from the generators, to facilitate “top-up maintenance.”
Further, the generators are subjected to scheduled general maintenance every two months. With the “top up maintenance” and the “scheduled maintenance” time it means that every two months GPL does not benefit from the usage of each of the generators for about one week. However, it still has to pay the full rental cost.
The makers of the sets are retailing one for US$900,000 (G$180M), according to GPL officials.  This means that purchase cost is a mere US$180,000 above the rental price.
GPL has said that it decided to rent against purchasing, because it did not have up-front capital at hand to go ahead and purchase the Caterpillar sets.
GPL’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Bharat Dindyal, along with his Deputy Aeshwar Deonarine, in replying to questions, insisted that it is far more beneficial to rent the sets since the state-owned power company is not burdened by maintenance costs; maintenance fees are covered by the rental fee.
Further, Elwyn Marshall, Divisional Director (Operations) said that the generators which are rented are not fit for long-term operations, and are more ideal for a temporary solution.
This is despite the fact that in June last year GPL said that it had 22 of the same Caterpillar sets in the system.
Six Caterpillar sets brought in last June are still in the system at Versailles and Leonora, West Demerara, and at Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara, among other places.
Government is moving ahead with plans to build a 165-megawatt hydro-electric project at Amaila Falls, Region Eight, to meet growing demands.
GPL has said that electricity demands has been growing at least 10 per cent annually, outstripping investments and power production which until recently countrywide was over 80 megawatts.

President Ramotar says GPL rental costs are disturbing, if true

April 3, 2012 | By KNews | Filed Under News 

US$900,000 generator rented for US$720,000 annually…
President Donald Ramotar yesterday toured operations of the cash-strapped Guyana Power and

President Donald Ramotar

Light Company (GPL) and did not dismiss questions raised about the lack of prudent spending at the utility.
“If what they say is true, it is obviously something to be concerned about,” Ramotar said regarding statements by GPL officials that a new Caterpillar generator costs US$900, 000, but the company rented 12 generators last year at a cost of US$720,000 each.

RAMU IS A HYPOCRITE.  HE CONDONED THIS RIP OFF BY DOING NOTHING?

"THE VISION AND WISDOM OF BHARAT JAGDEO"

When you are in a job for life you have to become good at it. Give Ramotar some time. In 16 years he will have the same wisdom.

So, you assessment is based on "ballpark".  Send an email to the Chinese, I'm sure they will welcome your grounded analytical input.

While one can use "ball-park" estimates, the specificity and uniqueness of each hydroelectric power development proposal determine the real cost for each project.

Caesar:
"Et tu, Brute Baseman?"

Julius Caesar (III, i, 77)

Perhaps the most famous three words uttered in literature, "Et tu, Brute?" (Even you, Brutus?) this expression has come down in history to mean the ultimate betrayal by one's closest friend. This scene, in which the conspirators in the Senate assassinate Caesar, is one of the most dramatic moments on the Shakespearean stage. The audience has just witnessed the arrogance and hubris of a ruler who has sought, within a republic, to become a monarch, comparing himself to the gods. Brutus, a friend of Caesar and yet a man who loves Rome (and freedom) more, has joined the conspirators in the assassination, a betrayal which is captured by the three words above.

Rather than trying to cover God's ass, why don't you assist him a rebuttal of my query.  I think you are running on empty bai, so obvious.

Oi Baseman, "Be not afraid of greatness.  I am absolutely convinced you are better than that.  You are not like them PPP chaps , intellectually dead Oh Baseman, yes they are intellectually dead!

Replying with a cut-and-paste generic quotation does not take too much man.  Be original.