Guyana’s second most costly project to date – the expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) – is to be signed today between government and a Chinese contractor.The project is reportedly worth around US$160M.Signing the contract with China Harbour and Engineering Corporation (CHEC) on behalf of Guyana is Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh.Government had initially said that the contract inked last year with CHEC is for US$138M and that the difference would be met from public funds. However, the costs according to government’s budget, has crept up. Guyana is likely to invest up to $20M, sending the project to the US$160M mark,wholesale nfl jerseys china, the country’s second largest project after the US$200M Skeldon sugar project.The expansion will see the leveling of the current terminalGovernment and Chinese firm, CHEC,Cheap Nike NFL Jerseys, to sign a multi-million US dollar contract today for a major expansion of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.building and the rebuilding of a new one; construction of aprons, taxi-ways and extension of the main runway; design and construction of a new car park,Cheap Stitched Jerseys, internal roads and handling equipment and the installation of eight passenger bridges and new security equipment.Government has argued that significant increases in passenger movement and space constraints have been stagnating growth of that international airport. While no feasibility study was made available to the public, government has said that it will be tapping into the Asian and African markets for passengers.But the project from the first announcement was under a dark shadow.Guyana only learnt of it after the Jamaican press reported on it late last year, days before the November 28th? General and Regional Elections.Government, in its defence,NFL Jerseys From China, said that CHEC’s regional office in Jamaica, prematurely released the information.CHEC itself has been linked to a number of media reports involving corruption but the company has denied all charges. Government said that it found no reason to not give CHEC the project and cleared it.The World Bank had banned the parent company of CHEC and a subsidiary from its future road projects for a number of years over corruption.An incident in Bangladesh which saw the son of a former Prime Minister sentenced in his absence for taking bribes, was also defended by CHEC, which insisted that it had nothing to do with that.CHEC is the same company that Jamaica’s Contractor-General, Greg Christie, earlier this year asked new Prime Minister, Portia Simpson-Miller, to consider terminating a US$600M contract that was granted without the benefit of a tendering process.Earlier this month, Jamaica’s Minister of Transport,Cheap NFL Jerseys, Works and Housing Omar Davies said that CHEC breached regulations over a multi-million road project. These included procurement breach and “wanton disregard for the conventions and procedures established by the government of Jamaica.”

An employee of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA),Cheap Jerseys From China, Paul Henry,Authentic NFL Jerseys Wholesale, was yesterday placed on $15,Cheap NFL Jerseys Authentic,000 bail after it was alleged that the man had stolen a document from the tax department.The 22-year-old man who lives at Lot 18 Victoria Road, Sparendaam, was employed as an office assistant at the government institution, appeared before Magistrate Sueanna Lovell to answer the charge of larceny by clerk or servant.Allegations against Henry are that on September 15 the GRA assistant stole from the Guyana Post Office (GPO) building a taxpayer’s file on Nerman Tarachand. The accused,Wholesale Jerseys, according to the prosecution,Cheap Adidas Hockey Jerseys, contacted Tarachand and asked that they meet at the Golden Coast restaurant located on Main Street. Henry at the meeting requested that Tarachand give him $3 M for the document which he was in return prepared to hand over to the taxpayer.According to the prosecution, Tarachand subsequently contacted police ranks informing them of the fraudulent matter and a sting operation was set up.? The covert operation was performed and the conversation between the two gentlemen had been recorded.Officers thereafter went over to the restaurant and the defendant was apprehended with the said file in his possession.? Henry was further taken to the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) where he was charged with the offence.Henry will return to the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on November 11.

Officials of the Canals Polder Neighbourhood Democratic Council, West Bank Demerara,China Jerseys, have denied that works done on a drainage system there were incorrectly carried out.During an interview recently, the NDC’s Chairman, Gobind Persaud, and the Works Chairman, Shameer Baksh,Cheap NFL Jerseys Stitched, claimed that the article caused much pain to hardworking staff members.The contrversial culvertSpecifically on the use of HDP black pipe to drain the farmlands into the Canal #2 waterway, the officials told Kaieteur News that while the front page picture clearly showed a depression it was not because of bad works.“This particular pipe had replaced a concrete culvert that had collapsed. At the time the photo was taken, the pipe was just laid down and it was awaiting settlement before being sealed.” Concerned residents had questioned whether the pipes, five of them, were laid down, correctly since it was apparently laid on sand and loam and then packed around with dirt.According to both officials, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the project since it was built to specifications and will last for years.“After settlement,Wholesale Jerseys, crush and run would be laid and then it is sealed.”At the time of Kaieteur News’s visit a few weeks ago, there was a huge depression above one of the culverts at Mondesir Street, giving the impression that something was wrong with the manner in which the HDP pipes were laid down.While the project is not an NDC one, it was part of an IDB-funded project to improve drainage in the Canals Polder areas with the NDCs, Regional Three administration and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority overseeing the installations.The project was supervised by SRK’ngineering,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, but officials there were unable to confirm the project cost of installing the pipes, saying that they were not authorised.Yesterday, Fredericks Flatts, Senior Civil Engineer of the Agriculture Sector Development Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture, indicated that the HDP culverts were part of a $390M project to improve 95 structures- 12 of them bridges.Most of these structures are in Region Three.Regarding the culvert in question at Canal # 1, Flatts disclosed that a wood support drainage structure that was in the same area had collapsed and the Ministry, based on farmers’ complaints,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, had authorised works to be carried out. The project was contracted to Falcon Transportation and Construction Services with SRK’ngineering supervising the works.Each of the five culverts laid down in the Canal # 2 a few months ago cost $660,000, the engineer said.