The National Gas Company (NGC) has fired Super Industrial Services Ltd (SIS) from the multi-million dollar Beetham Water Recycling Plant.
In a statement from the State company yesterday, acting NGC president Maria Thorne said the contract was expected to be completed by October 21, 2015, but “to date SIS, the contractor, has failed to complete the project.
“NGC and its team have continuously exerted best efforts to ensure the stipulated contractual terms are satisfied.
“After careful deliberation, NGC has exercised its right to terminate the contract with SIS. This decision was prompted by our fiduciary responsibility to safeguard the interests and assets of the company,” the NGC release said.
One week ago, the T&T Guardian reported that the contentious multi-billion dollar contract was under review by the newly-appointed board of directors, headed by Gerry Brooks.
According to yesterday’s release, SIS, the preferred contractor under the former administration, indicated to NGC it was “unable to continue the works” in accordance with the contract.
Last September, the T&T Guardian had reported that SIS had outsourced portions of the project to a South-based company. In those bid documents, SIS detailed a ten-point plan to outsource work for the horizontal drilling aspect of the project. SIS had then defended its ability to complete the project.
This latest development comes just weeks after the new board stepped in after the September 7 general election. It was under the tenure of the former president, Indar Maharaj, that the billion-dollar project was approved. Maharaj, in a brief telephone interview yesterday, refused to comment on the quashed contract.
“I have been out of the country for the last six weeks. It would be improper to comment on it,” Maharaj said.
In media reports over the past year, it was revealed that NGC had made several monthly multi-million dollar payments to SIS despite the contractor’s slow pace of delivery.
In July, the T&T Guardian reported that SIS had been paid as much as $887 million of the contract, which was only 66.1 per cent completed. It was also reported then that a further US$32.4 million was paid to SIS in the form of a mobilisation fee which was not a part of the contract with NGC.
The NGC had then defended the payment schedule, saying that the mobilisation fee was supposed to be repaid in tranches, the first of which was due in August. The State company had confirmed then that despite the millions paid to SIS, the Beetham Waste Water project was only 42 per cent completed at that time.
According to yesterday’s media release, NGC and SIS entered into a contract on March 10, 2014 for the design and build of the Beetham Water Recycling Plant for the value of US$162,055,318.77.
Last week, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley all but called for the suspension of the project, saying he had written to President Anthony Carmona to get involved and use the Constitution to force then prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to answer questions on the hush-hush project.
“I presented the evidence and I identified a clear conflict of decision-making involving the people at WASA (Water and Sewage Authority) and the same people at NGC,” Rowley said in a text exchange then.
He was referring to reports that the then chairman of WASA was the chief executive officer at NGC at the time that the contract was awarded.
Former energy minister Kevin Ramnarine, who was a vocal supporter of the contract, could not be reached for comment yesterday as calls to his cellphone went unanswered and he did not return calls.
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Last year, when questions were raised about the award of the multi-billion dollar contract to Super Industrial Services Ltd (SIS), then energy minister Kevin Ramnarine had defended the company and the award.
In 2014, Ramnarine had ordered a report into the award of the contract and then explained his findings in Parliament.
He said then that it was the National Gas Company board of directors who were responsible for the final decision and that SIS was chosen because it topped the international players vying for the project.
He also said SIS had “scored 77.93 per cent in the technical evaluation” and that it had “proposed a superior pipeline methodology.”
He said too that SIS had submitted a “superior construction programme” and that its information submitted on “reverse osmosis was of superior quality.”
Ramnarine said SIS was also given the nod because its proposal had “greater local content” and its design team had “extensive membrane plant experience.”