| US$840M Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project…– Poland severed highway venture in 2011– Company says collapsed bridge not its workThe Pakistani government has refused to approve a major railway tracks project that was awarded to the Chinese company which earlier this week signed a US$506M contract to construct the Amaila Falls Hydro Electric Project (AFHEP) in Guyana.The Pakistani project, worth Rs.13.6B (US$143.6M),World Baseball Classic Jerseys Outlet, was reportedly awarded to the overseas subsidiary of China Railway Engineering Corporation (CREC),Jerseys NFL Cheap, without a tendering process.According to a report of the Business Recorder, the cabinet recently “considered the proposal ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ …and decided that the case may be placed before the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.”Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) has also written a letter to Prime Minister, Raja Pervez Ashraf, protesting the awarding of the contract to the Chinese firm without a tendering process.TIP noted that Pakistan Railways’ adamant attitude of trying to award procurement contracts without tenders for railway engines, railway tracks and other items, has resulted in over Rs120B in losses by that government-owned company in the last four and a half years. The situation is that the railways’ operations are at a standstill with a closure of all cargo trains and half of passenger trains, the news report said.CREC, known more popularly as China Railway,Cheap NFL Jerseys, and its subsidiaries,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, have been embroiled in a number of international controversies in recent times.Last year, also, in an embarrassing scandal, Poland reportedly cancelled a multi-million highway contract with the same overseas subsidiary in the middle of construction, the UK’s Financial Times said.China Overseas Engineering Group (COVEC), was awarded the contract to build a 50km stretch of highway between Warsaw and the German border in 2009, after presenting a bid so low that rivals brought allegations of price dumping to Warsaw and Brussels.It was the first Chinese company to win such a large European highway contract and the company hoped to use the project to gain more business in the region.According to the report,Stitched Canada NBA Jerseys, the Chinese firm quickly ran into financial difficulties once construction got underway and work was halted in May 2011.Poland’s road construction authority cancelled the contract on June 13, 2011.Some media are reporting that COVEC walked off after finding itself in a cash situation.Financial Times reported that the collapse of the contract became an embarrassment for Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, because he had pledged to complete the highway before this year’s summer’s European football championships, which Poland co-hosted with Ukraine. Opposition parties had seized the opportunity to attack the Prime Minister.COVEC won the contract after presenting an extremely low bid, coming in at less than 50% of the US$1B budgeted by the government.According to the report, the bid prompted complaints from rivals, who said the Chinese company was price dumping because it was impossible to build so cheaply.Germany’s Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, an industry body,Discount NFL Jerseys, had alleged in 2010 that state-owned Chinese companies were securing contracts in the region “via price-dumping, aggressive financing and generous risk guarantees.”Warsaw and Brussels dismissed the objections, but COVEC quickly ran into financial difficulties, delaying payments to subcontractors and claiming the road building authority was itself late in paying. The agency had denied the claim. COVEC tried to renegotiate the contract, saying that raw materials were unexpectedly expensive and that it had been unfairly treated.The Polish government rejected the claim, however, saying it could open the way for similar negotiations from companies building hundreds of kilometres of roads around the country.On June 13, 2011, COVEC issued a statement and said that it was ready to resume work, but at a cost.Speaking on local television, the deputy director of the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways, Andrzej Majewski, said “one has to finish the contract which was agreed, for the price that was agreed, with the conditions that have been described.”Financial Times said that the agency was demanding 741 million zlotys (US$270M).Guyana is currently in preparation to start construction of a US$840M, 165 megawatts hydro-electric project that government says will vastly reduce the country’s dependence of fossil fuel for energy.There has been worry over what will be Guyana’s most expensive project ever.On Tuesday, a US$506M contract was signed in China between the developer of the Amaila Falls project, Sithe Global, and China First Railway Group (CFRG), another subsidiary of the Chinese company.Meanwhile, in response to a New York Times story carried in Kaieteur News yesterday on last month’s collapse of a part of China’s Yangmingtan Bridge, the Chinese firm yesterday said that news reports were incorrect.In a release, CFRG said that the collapsed ramp was not under the same contract as the Yangmingtan Bridge which was undertaken by China Railway First Group Co., Ltd., and the information has since been verified in the media. |
