…says Govt., people of Guyana owes him…only 9km of 161km road 100 per cent completeBy Gary EleazarMakeswar ‘Fip’ Motilall the President of Synergy Holding’s Inc who had his US$15.4M contract to build the access road for the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Plant taken away for failing to perform has decided to cry foul,Wholesale Jerseys, slamming the Government’s decision as “unfair.”Motilall at a hastily held press conference yesterday,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, following the termination of the contract, admitted that his US Headquarters was based in a Grocery Supermarket but lashed out at the Government and blamed it for the delays.He further charged that he was owed by the Government and by extension the people of Guyana for the work that he has done so far in what he called hostile terrain.Motilall conceded that of the 161km of road that he was contracted to build, only a total of 9km has been completed to specification with the laterite already covering the roadway.Kaieteur News’s Publisher Glen Lall following yesterday’s revelation about the termination of the contract said that the newspaper has been vindicated in the groundwork that it has done in the reportage on the issue.He said too that he honestly believes that Bharrat Jagdeo and Motilall had deliberately set about to rob this nation and that they should both be sent to jail.Lall said that the two are nothing but, “scamps, thieves and vagabonds.”US$5.8M paid, no delaysThis publication understands that Motilall has been paid by the Government some US$8.5M but he denied and said that instead, he has only received about US$5.8M, inclusive of a US$1.5M mobilization fee which he used, in part, to buy equipment for the project.“How I spend it is my business, really,” Motilall said as he sought to defer questions as to why he had to use the advance given by the government to purchase equipment for the construction of the road.He vehemently denied that he was behind schedule and sought to explain this position.He reminded that the contact was awarded in March 2010, at which point in time he was given two months for a ‘ground truthing’ exercise which allowed the company to conduct surveys and design the road.Motilall said that this was done without delay but he had to wait for several months for the ‘Construction Notice to Proceed’ and was only initially given a partial go ahead.He said that the company had to divide the works into several components, each with a specific responsibility such as bushing where the trees had to be removed; clearing and grubbing where this bio mass had to be removed; bedding up of the road and finally rolling and capping.The Synergy Boss told media operatives that as it relates to the clearing of the bushes, this was 95 per cent complete and this has been a while now.As it relates to what he referred to as removing of the biomass, the company is some 60 per cent complete and bedded some 40 per cent of the road, which he said is now ready for laterite.Following this disclosure, Motilall said that they have started putting laterite on the road in at least two locations but this in total comes up to about 9km of completed road.Not behind schedule“Long story short, I would definitely say that we are not behind schedule,Cheap Jerseys,” was Motilall’s words as he attempted to explain how after three years of securing a project that should have been completed in eight months, it is only collectively 40 per cent complete.In explaining his three reasons for the delays, Fip told media operatives that it is an “uninformed public that could claim that I am behind schedule”, reiterating that in addition to the ground truthing exercise, he had to wait for the notice to proceed.He said that it was not until eight months after that he received a partial notice to proceed, at which point in time he proceeded to mobilize the equipment.Motilall said that it was not until January of 2011,Cheap Baseball Jerseys, almost one year after signing the contract, that he was given the full go ahead to proceed with the construction of the road.Rains and more rainsHaving laid the blame at the feet of the government for not giving him the go ahead to proceed with the construction, Motilall went on to blame Mother Nature for another set of delays.He said that during the period after he was given the full go ahead, there was record rains coming out of the La Nina Phenomenon.“It was unprecedented rains in Guyana…we did not have a dry season as was expected…it was 100 year record levels,” said Motilall, claiming though that his valiant team did manage to push some work.It was for this reason, Motilall said, that the Government had initially granted an extension from September 2011 to December.Another critical thing that happened in between May and August last year, according to Motilall,Cheap Soccer Jerseys, was that the end users of the road namely,China NBA Jerseys, China Railway who will be building the Hydro Electric plant, change the specifications because the road was not wide enough nor designed to take the weight that they had requested.This change required a 63 per cent increase in laterite and sand that the revised construction specifications called for.Pressed on his competence to build a road and his history in the US,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, Fip Motilall said that he noticed that there were reports that neither him nor his company were listed as contractors to undertake such projects but suggested that a person does not have to be a Contractor to build a road in the US.“We have built roads as a contractor for ourselves,” he said.Asked whether he believes that it was because he did not allow for other persons to come on to the project as sub-contractors that led to the contract being taken away, Motilall answered in the negative saying that none of the contractors that had been approached to assist with the road could have undertaken the scope of the works required.He said that at present, he is contemplating his legal options against the Government of Guyana, saying that they owe him more than US$1M.He also denied claims that the Consultant SKRN had to intervene and manage parts of the project but rather claimed that they assisted at his request.“I am not sure what the next step would be but I have to protect my assets and I have to protect the reputation of my company,” Motilall asserted.He also insisted that his company is not as bad as has been painted but said that he could not defend the company because of a contractual stipulation that prevented him from speaking to the media.He said too that this was responsible for his inability to take media operatives onto the worksite to view the works while it was progressing.Even though the Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon in April last year had deemed ‘Motilall’ hopelessly behind schedule and that they had continuously been meeting, Motilall said that this was not discussed.He further lashed out at Luncheon, questioning how he could be behind schedule in April when he was only given the go ahead in January.Motilall claimed that with some 80 staff in the different sections of the road, he had enough manpower but also conceded that there was a high staff turnover.
