A local company that was placed in the limelight several years ago for shoddy work at the Kato Secondary School, Region Eight, has secured the multimillion-dollar contract to rebuild the North Ruimveldt Secondary School that was ravaged by fire back in June.
The contract, with a project sum of $566.9M was awarded to Kares Engineering Inc. The contract was inked yesterday.
Permanent Secretary, Alfred King signed on behalf of the Ministry of Education. The Project Consultancy was awarded to Marcel Gaskin.
Kares Engineering Inc., fell into hot water back in 2016, mere weeks after it completed the $728M Kato project. However, numerous defects prohibited occupation of the facility. It was declared “structurally unsound”.
Millions of dollars were later doled out by the government for remedial works, pushing the total cost of the school’s construction beyond $1 billion.
Although a contract was signed to construct the school in December of 2012, the contractor began work in May of 2013 with an initial estimated time of completion set for 2015. However, after much delay, the school was finally declared fit for learning on September 10, 2018, with nine classes ranging from Grades 7 to 9. The Kato school now serves 17 Indigenous communities in the sub-district one area.
Education Minister, Priya Manickchand during the inking of the North Ruimveldt School contract yesterday urged the contractor to follow specifications.
Further, she said that moving forward, wherever there is a school being built, it will not be the engineer’s responsibility alone to ensure work is done properly. She said that each project will have an Education Officer attached to the construction of that building who will stress the importance of the project being completed on time and at the highest quality.
She noted also that the details regarding construction will also be made public so that members of the community can also hold contractors accountable.
The new school will measure 432ft (length) by 30ft (width) and 42ft in height. It will have three storeys and will accommodate 450 to 500 students. The school will be fitted with science laboratories, Information Technology Laboratories, new classrooms, teacher accommodation, a sanitary block and a modern external structure. The project period is 14 months.
