Georgetown : The Ministry of Public Works this evening responded to a recent article in the privately-owned Kaieteur News, captioned ‘Jagdeo administration accepts 69 toilet sets at $424,000 each in Airport Contract’.
The Ministry says the article is misleading and also decried the attempts by some politicians and media operatives to stymie development in Guyana.
In the report, comparisons were made with the costs for such facilities, quoting prices from $10,000 to $30,000 on the local market. There were even comments from a well known political commentator, Christopher Ram, who described the price as a shocking tale of recklessness and irresponsibility on the part of the Ministry of Public Works.
The Ministry’s press release debunked this misconception by explaining that the type of contract between China Harbour Engineering and the Ministry of Public Works, described as the Lump Sum category, usually includes all relevant costs attach to the line item. This includes materials, labour, overheads, transportation and profit.
It explained further, that there is no stated pricing for sewer lines, washroom cubicles, doors, and other fittings associated with the washroom, for specific sanitary items. It describes as “misleading”, “to extract a line item indexed cost”, representing such cost as the same for the stated line item, without taking into consideration “the associated costs” that are attached to the item, in keeping with the distributive nature of Lump-sum contracts.
On a comparative basis, the release said that the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Expansion project pricing is competitive and reasonable, compared to other airport contracts.
