Engineer who accepted cash from contractor was fired - Xavier
Stabroek News
June 2, 2002
The former Works Ministry highway engineer who was embroiled in the Mandela Bridge fiasco has repaid the $220,000 he received from the contractor for his involvement in the design of the bridge and was fired by Minister Anthony Xavier.
Xavier told Stabroek News on Wednesday that Pariag Deodat was asked to repay the sum in full, after which his services were terminated with the ministry, prior to his contract coming to an end.
Auditor General, Anand Goolsarran in his report on the Mandela Bridge fiasco said that the payment of this $220,000 to Deodat was highly irregular as the engineer was on full-time duty with the ministry and included in his list of duties was the design of bridge structures. He was the supervisor for the Mandela Bridge project.
Goolsarran had highlighted in his report that technical adviser to the minister, Walter Willis, had examined the contract drawings for the Mandela Bridge project and found that the weight of the proposed new decking was too heavy to be supported by the existing structure of the bridge. He had recommended that the bridge be redesigned and the works re-tendered for.
However, Xavier confirmed that he called in Chief Roads Officer, Donald Walcott, who has since retired, and he disagreed with Willis' report. Chief Works Officer, Frank Bassier supported Walcott's position. As a result the ministry went ahead with the designs which ended up costing the treasury an additional $10.8 million in remedial work to correct the bridge failure, which occurred after the initial $15 million project was completed. The cost overrun amounted to 169%.
Xavier agrees now that he should have listened to his technical adviser. He said that what has happened as a result is that the Work Services Group in the ministry is being beefed up with more engineers to allow for more supervision and proper implementation.
Xavier also said that he would ensure that he found time to go into the field and check projects and not rely only on the word of those around him. He said that he always knew that his ministry could not be run from behind a desk, but that he had recently been bogged down with paperwork.