Asha Javeed

Lead Ed­i­tor In­ves­ti­ga­tions

asha.javeed@guardian.co.tt

The Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment Cor­po­ra­tion (HDC) says it has not made any pay­ment to con­trac­tor Ricky Raghu­nanan for the con­tro­ver­sial Tre­strail De­vel­op­ment.

Last week, the Sun­day Guardian re­port­ed that the HDC had de­cid­ed that more than half of the 100 hous­ing units con­struct­ed by Raghu­nanan at Tre­strail will be de­mol­ished due to in­fra­struc­ture is­sues which have plagued the de­vel­op­ment.

It not­ed that be­cause of the de­sign-build-fi­nance con­tract, the sum to be paid to Raghu­nanan is be­ing ne­go­ti­at­ed be­tween him and the HDC’s lawyers since he was fired from the project in April. It al­so not­ed that, un­like oth­er de­sign-build-fi­nance con­tracts in the pub­lic ser­vice, Raghu­nanan did not post a per­for­mance bond and was al­lowed by the HDC to start and al­most com­plete the project with­out post­ing a per­for­mance bond, or any part there­of.

The project, which be­gan at $72 mil­lion VAT ex­clu­sive, is now es­ti­mat­ed to be $112 mil­lion.

At the UNC’s Mon­day night fo­rum, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal ques­tioned how much Raghu­nanan had been paid by the HDC so far and whether any re­me­di­al work had been un­der­tak­en.

He had said when the is­sue was raised, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is said the con­trac­tor would fund re­me­di­al work on the project, not the Gov­ern­ment.

“I ask to­day: who fund­ed re­me­di­al work? Be­cause there’s none, they’re go­ing to de­mol­ish every­thing. They build a doll­house! They’re go­ing to de­mol­ish af­ter that project moved from $72 mil­lion to $110 mil­lion. How much has the con­trac­tor re­ceived so far? How much did the con­trac­tor spend on the re­me­di­al works when there was nev­er any re­me­di­al work?

“Why was a con­tract award­ed mi­nus per­for­mance bond? Why was he al­lowed to con­struct homes with­out this bond? This con­tract was giv­en months be­fore the 2020 gen­er­al elec­tions, so you give him (a) con­tract, no per­for­mance bond, no his­to­ry of build­ing hous­es,” Mooni­lal asked.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, the HDC said it has a rem­e­dy for de­fec­tive works, which can be “set off” un­der the con­tract. It not­ed that the HDC award­ed a Sil­ver Book de­sign-build-fi­nance con­tract to the Ricky Raghu­nanan Group of Com­pa­nies, which places the over­all re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and risk for the de­sign and con­struc­tion of the project on the con­trac­tor.

“It must be not­ed that con­trary to the as­ser­tions made no fees have been paid, as the HDC will on­ly re­mit funds for cer­ti­fied “fit-for-pur­pose” units. Fur­ther, re­me­di­al works will be per­formed by Clause 14.17 of the FIDIC con­tract which states “with­out prej­u­dice to any oth­er right or rem­e­dy, the em­ploy­er (in­clud­ing any right or rem­e­dy of de­duc­tion or set off), may deduct from any sum due, or to be­come due to the con­trac­tor, un­der or in con­nec­tion with the con­tract and from any sum re­tained from any pay­ment oth­er­wise due to the con­trac­tor, any sum, due or to be­come due, from the con­trac­tor un­der or in con­nec­tion with the con­tract,” the HDC said.

It not­ed that the per­for­mance bond rep­re­sent­ed $7.2 mil­lion (ten per cent) of the con­tract.

“The HDC did recog­nise in 2020, af­ter the ex­e­cu­tion of the con­tract, that the con­trac­tor failed to pro­vide such bonds. De­spite be­ing in­struct­ed to so do, on sev­er­al oc­ca­sions and not­ing his re­cent at­tempts, to date, this re­mains un­suc­cess­ful. Giv­en that a per­for­mance bond has not been pro­vid­ed, and the HDC has made no pay­ments to the con­trac­tor, the HDC has suf­fered no fi­nan­cial loss.

“Fur­ther, the Ricky Raghu­nanan Group of Com­pa­nies has per­formed in the past on sev­er­al projects for the HDC be­fore com­menc­ing this con­tract. The HDC wish­es to as­sure its clients that it is com­mit­ted to build­ing units that are cer­ti­fied fit-for-pur­pose for the cit­i­zen­ry of Trinidad and To­ba­go. The HDC re­it­er­ates that the MP for Oropouche East’s in­fer­ence on the lack of con­struc­tion ex­pe­ri­ence by the con­trac­tor is in­cor­rect.”

Last Thurs­day, the HDC in­vit­ed sev­er­al con­trac­tors to tour Tre­strail and “in­vite you, amongst oth­ers, to sub­mit a quo­ta­tion for the pro­vi­sion of de­mo­li­tion ser­vices for Tre­strail Phase 1 R.”