Cabinet has concluded that contracting firm BK International Inc and executing agency the National Drainage and Irrigation Board (NDIB) are both culpable for the November breach of the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC) dam and has recommended penalties and remedial action.

A Government Information Agency (GINA) release yesterday stated that the Attorney-General's Chambers would be tendering legal advice on the penalties and remedial action and more details would be made public shortly.

Cabinet concluded its deliberations yesterday on the report on the factors which led to the breach in the EDWC dam at La Bonne Mere, Cane Grove, Mahaica, East Coast Demerara. The breach caused extensive flooding at Cane Grove over a number of days and heavy loss of crops and livestock.

Stabroek News made several attempts to contact BK's Managing Director, Brian Tiwarie yesterday but was told he was not in office. The NDIB could not be contacted yesterday afternoon and it has previously declined to respond directly to the media. BK's last position on the findings of the report was that nothing in it extinguished its original view that the disaster was caused by "human hands unknown."

BK had issued a statement which said "until the [investigating] team is in a position to impartially and scientifically evaluate all possible options, BK International Inc will reserve its position as to the causation in the same way that the 1968 breach remains a historical disaster of unknown origin."

The company had said it was mindful of the range of viewpoints on the cause of the breach but had its own. "Nothing is proven conclusively. Everything is speculation and unscientific extrapolation," the statement read.

In a letter to the editor, which appeared in Wednesday's Stabroek News, Tiwarie pointed out that the report made several recommendations but these did not include the blacklisting or penalising of his company.

Tiwarie wrote to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon, on Thursday reminding him of a letter dated March 22, requesting a complete report of the probe team. He said the company was yet to receive it.

In reaction to a statement made on Wednesday by Dr Luncheon at a press conference that BK had chosen not to provide a response to the report and Cabinet had to go ahead to make a decision without such a response, Tiwarie asserted that no-one had requested the company's official comments on the report.

"We are prepared to submit our comments but we may need some clarification from the team on some of their findings. We have had access to an incomplete copy [of the report] loaned to us. That is why we need a full copy for detailed study," Tiwarie stated in his letter to Dr Luncheon.

BK has come in for close scrutiny following the release of the report, which said the contractor did not comply with several important procedures, excavated too close to the dam and utilised unsuitable material.

The probe team found that the decision to execute remedial works on the dam was taken with extreme haste and without sufficient analysis of the possible implications.

The report said that the contract was not executed by BK in accordance with the general conditions, technical specifications and bill of quantities.

The probe determined that BK's manner of execution diverged completely from that outlined in the method statement.

The report added that the NDIB did not provide a surveyor to monitor the works during construction. There were insufficient supervisors to adequately cover all the operations being carried out by the contractor and technical support from the NDIB was weak, the report stated.