Local Government Minister Priya Manickchand said on Monday she is “very disappointed” by repeated delays on the Bamia Primary School project in Region 10, noting that the government will not accept the facility until the contractor concludes all outstanding works.
The project, nearing $500 million was awarded in November 2021 to St8tement Investment Inc., but the project has missed several deadlines over four years. Following the original award of a $346 million contract, the Parliament approved an additional $127 million allocation to complete the project.
Appearing on a GoMoseley radio show on Monday, Manickchand said Ministry teams inspected the site as recently as Sunday and observed the unfinished work. “We refused to take a building for the sake of taking a building,” she said. “We were not completely satisfied that the contractual obligations of the contractors are carried out.”
She added that while contractors often cite challenges, including shipping delays, the overall slowdown at Bamia was unacceptable. “The level of tolerance by the people and government for people who breach those [contract obligations] is really, really heavily reduced,” she said.
The Minister noted she has met the contractors several times. The builders, she said, have indicated they are eager to finish the project. If they meet the remaining requirements quickly, students could move into the school before the end of the current term, she added.
“My fingers are crossed that even before school closes, we can get the children into school,” Manickchand said.
The project has drawn scrutiny from the inception, with some calling into question the competence of the contracting company, whose proprietors, Kerwin Bollers and Rawle Ferguson, along with Aubrey Major and Kashif Muhammed, are in the business of sport and entertainment.
“St8ment Investment Inc. is a fly-by-night company with no prior school construction experience,” Azruddin Mohamed, Leader of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party said last week in a Facebook message.
Mohamed called Manickchand “all talk, photo ops and no results,” and questioned “When will Linden children get to return to some degree of normalcy and comfort?”
