Georgetown: The Ministry of Culture Youth and Sport awarded a $37.3M contract to D & S Construction to build the foundation for the 25-metre warm-up pool at the National Aquatic Centre at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara.
The works consist of a reinforced concrete strip, columns and base which will be six inches thick, upper walls and foot rest to accommodate the walls for the pre fabricated pool.
Other works include the construction of sub-surface drains around the pool to lower the water pressure, two manholes to remove water within the foundation itself, and a decking around the pool, among other drainage works.
The pool is 25 metres long by 21 metres wide and has a varying depth of 1.175 to 1.82 metres. Once completed, it will see the pre-fabricated pool being installed by Myrtha Pools. The works are expected to be completed within the next six months.
Minister of Culture Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony, during the signing ceremony at the ministry’s Main Street office said that the ministry will be closely monitoring the project in order to ensure that the contractor delivers within the given timeframe.
The Ministry appointed Deoraj Dulchan of Innovative Engineering Consultancy Service to supervise the works.
“We do not have the technical people, the engineers and therefore we contract these services and we expect that people whom we contract to do these works would get it done according to their contract,” Minister Anthony stressed.
Meanwhile, a $1,226,610 contract was awarded to Bhola Nauth Ramraj for rehabilitation works on living quarters at the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) Essequibo, rehabilitation of roof and construction of fire escape stairway at the National Trust Building and the Walter Roth Museum at a cost of $4,880,546 and $2,812,634 respectively.
Minister Anthony said that on numerous occasions the ministry has had difficulty with contractors not complying with their contracts and cautioned that the ministry will not hesitate to terminate any contract if the contractor fails to comply.
“We will not be accepting any excuses for not getting the work completed …we want to get these things finished in a timely manner,” he said.
The ministry has already given out contracts for 80% of its capital works, and for it to fulfill its mandate and act in accordance with its budget, these works have to be completed within a certain time.
“When we work with people like Myrtha Pools who did the 50-metre pool, those people come in and they are able to deliver in a timely manner and sometimes way before the deadline…we sometimes end up in problems when we have the local contractors who have to deliver certain elements so that the people can finish the work and very often they are not delivering on time,” Minister Anthony stated.
Permanent Secretary, Alfred King said the ministry has an effective management approach where a fortnightly oversight meeting is held, and the minister questions works as it relates to designs, quality control and timely delivery which allow the ministry to identify issues long before the contracts end.
King said that approach has been working and the ministry will continue to firmly manage all its projects to ensure contracts are not being breached.
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