Kuwaiti Fund contractors given another chance on roads project

A DELEGATION from the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development met earlier this week with prime minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves to iron out problems which he said have halted a multi-million dollar secondary roads project in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

So dissatisfied was Gonsalves with the performance of the contractors that he disclosed on radio on May 8 that the contractors had been fired and government was seeking new contractors to do the work.

While on a visit to the proposed site for the construction of a science laboratory on Tuesday, June 7, the prime minister updated SEARCHLIGHT on the on-again-off-again roads programme with the contractors.

“I had written a second letter to the Kuwaiti Fund. The first letter I wrote I was ready to pull the plug on the contractors. The contractors came and we worked on certain agreements. It turns out that those agreements- in our view- by the contractor were not being followed,” he explained.

When he disclosed that the contractors had been fired, Gonsalves had expressed his “great disappointment” with the roads project funded under the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, in conjunction with the OPEC Fund for International Development.

He complained then that the contractors “had not done what they were contracted to do,” and said his patience had worn thin; he subsequently wrote to the Kuwaiti Fund, requesting a cancellation of the contract.

Following another meeting the contractors who were given “another chance”, did some work, and as a consequence, the Prime minister said he wrote again to the Kuwait Fund withdrawing the cancellation letter.

But with respect to that work Gonsalves said , “they have failed to do not only what is in the contract, but what they agreed with us.”

So, on Tuesday June 7, the prime minister met with a delegation from the Kuwaiti Fund to discuss the way forward.

He said, “I wrote the fund again, and thankfully they came and they acted as arbiters. And I believe the main issue is resolved, and I’m hoping to see if we start immediately on all those road projects.”

Work on the 30 or so secondary roads that fall under the programme are being financed at a cost of more than $90 million.