Irregularities found in Mandela bridge erection
Advice for new design not heeded, cost overrun of 169% incurred
By Gitanjali Singh
Stabroek News
May 27, 2002
Auditor General, Anand Goolsarran, says that a payment of $220,000 to Pariag Deodat, a former highway engineer with the Ministry of Public Works for his involvement in the design of the Mandela bridge deck is irregular as he was employed with the ministry on a full-time basis and his duties included the design of bridge structures.
Deodat is no longer in the employ of the ministry and it is not certain whether he had to pay any monetary penalty for his supervision of the botched works on the bridge. The original contractor of the bridge had paid him for his involvement in the bridge design while he was supervising the project for the ministry. His contract with the ministry ended and was not renewed.
In his audited report on the ministry for 2000, Goolsarran said that his investigation into the sinking bridge revealed that Technical Adviser to the minister, Walter Willis, had examined the contract drawings and made calculations to determine whether the existing bridge support would accommodate the new bridge deck.
"His calculations revealed that the weight of the proposed new decking was too heavy to be supported by the existing supporting structure. Based on his findings, he had recommended that the bridge be redesigned and the works re-tendered for," Goolsarran said in his report.
However, he said, Willis' report was referred to Chief Roads Officer, Donald Walcott (now retired), for his comments and he disagreed with Willis' report. Deodat and Chief Works Officer, Frank Bassier, supported him, Goolsarran said.
Goolsarran said that as a result, the ministry proceeded to construct the bridge without any modification to the design of the support to the bridge.
But on examination of the bills of quantities for the Mandela Bridge, Goolsarran said, it was revealed that the highway engineer was involved in the design of the bridge deck and in the supervision of the works.
And the bills reflected an amount of $220,000 for the design of the bridge. Goolsarran said that the chief roads officer confirmed that the contractor paid this amount to the highway engineer, a payment that Goolsarran dubbed "irregular" given Deodat's scope of duties.
The contract for the construction of the Mandela Bridge in East La Penitence was awarded in December 1999 in the sum of $9.6 million, with Cabinet approving a $5.4 million variation, giving a revised contract sum of $15 million. However, Goolsarran said the chief roads officer had only recommended a variation of $2.1 million and no documentary evidence had been produced to substantiate the actual variation approved by Cabinet.
This contract was executed by McEwan & Associates and as of December 13, 2000 this firm had been paid $13.3 million. Goolsarran reported that at the time of inspection, the works were completed but the centre of the bridge had begun to sink.
He said that engineers attached to the audit office carried out an assessment of the actual contractual works along with the bills of quantities and based on their evaluation, they concluded that the contractor should have been paid $2.8 million for variation works and not $5.4 million as reportedly approved by Cabinet.
A contingency sum of $873,933 was provided for in the contract for work not envisaged at the start of the project and such payment should only have been effected on approved work sanctioned by the chief roads officer.
"However, the entire amount was paid to the contractor for no apparent reason. Further the sum of $100,000 was paid to the contractor for cleaning the site," Goolsarran said, noting that this item was usually included under the preliminaries section of the bills of quantities. He said in the absence of such a section in the bills of quantities, the cleaning of the site was deemed to be included in the prices under the measured work.
The auditor general also pointed out that the contract for the Mandela Bridge provided for liquidated damages in the sum of $5,000 per day and even though the actual completion date of the project far exceeded the revised contract completion date, no deductions were made from payments to the contractor.
Remedial works on the Mandela Bridge were undertaken by E Cush & Associates at a cost of $10.8 million, taking the total cost of the Mandela Bridge to $25.874 million, a 169% cost overrun from the original project.