18 contractors bid to construct new Reg. 10 RDC headquarters
Apr 11, 2025
Kaieteur News- Having issued a tender for the construction of its new headquarters building, the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region 10 has received a total of 18 bids from contractors interested in executing the project.
The current office building of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region 10
According to information provided by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) office, the bidders have bid between $180 million and $247 million for the project which is estimated to cost $234,989,034.
Those competing for the contract are as follow: Steven’s Venture – $222,143,534; Picture Perfect Tours Inc. – $214,950,488; CAJ Construction Firm – $180,960,615; Ramlochan Construction & Trucking Inc.; Ash Civil Engineering Works – $190,723,785; Anil Lalsa Construction – $221,528,139; Prored Resources – $231,791,000; A Nazier & Son Contracting & General Supplies – $209,979,588; Hard Runnings Investment Inc. – $234,892,927.50; Modern Construction & Trucking Services – $199,394,475; JK Enterprise Inc. – $233,399,439; Gryphon Engineering Inc. – $232,770,405; R&M Mining Investment Project Inc. – $232,279,163; Sovereignty Investments Construction Services (SICS Builders) – $214,670,956.05; Ele’s Trading & Hardware – $224,937,542; Supreme Wood Products Inc. – $211,794,607; Vishal Contracting Company – $247,279,988; and Naran Construction – $216,483,708.
This publication had reported that this project comes some four years after the RDC has been making proposals for funds from the government to complete its new headquarters building in Linden.
Notably, while this project is estimated to cost $235 million, the Regional Chairman, Deron Adams had informed this publication that a project like this cost some $680 million to execute.
The Regional Chairman had told this newspaper previously that “The RDC has registered serious concern through its Clerk of Council with respect to the inadequate finances budgeted for the construction of its headquarters, since this building had been estimated to cost $680 million as outlined in our 2025 budget requests and had been valued at over $600 million when originally proposed in 2018.”
“This is marginalisation at best and discriminatory at worst, so we hold out the hope that this is an oversight that would be remedied by the Ministry of Finance clarifying if additional financing would be made available to address the sum requested,” Adams added.
Currently, various departments of the Regional Administration are operating from various locations in Linden.
It was reported that the new Regional Democratic Council Headquarters will be located at Speightland, Mackenzie, and the decision for a new building emerged from the lack of space to properly accommodate the staff, all the departments that fall within the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) and the deplorable state of the building.
Regarding this project, this publication reported that at a Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) meeting last year February, it was disclosed that after a contract for the building was initiated in 2017, the project was later terminated in 2021.
It was explained during PAC that in December 2017, the region awarded a contract valued $256 million to Chungs Global for the construction of the Regional Administration building. The project was given 24 months completion time which should have seen the project being completed in December 2019.
However, the project was delayed and given a temporary cease order in March 2018. The project recommenced in January 2019.
The former REO, Orrin Gordon explained during the meeting that when he took up the position of REO, no work was started by March 2018.
An engineer from the RDC, Gavin Clarke had clarified at the meeting that when they had ordered the temporary cease work order in 2018, a recommencement order was given to the contractor for the project to be restarted. This occurred on January 31, 2019. Having been given a new commencement date, Clarke said the revised completion date was set for January 18, 2021. Clarke went on to state that with January 31, 2021 being the revised completion date, the letter of termination was issued to the contractor in April 2021.
He explained that in April 2021, upon examination of the works, only 12 percent of the works were done.
The current Regional Executive Officer (REO), Dwight John, in his explanation at the time said that the contract was terminated due to poor performance and the percentage of works completed at the time.
It was reported too that after the termination of the contract in 2021, no other contract was awarded to complete the building. John told the PAC that he made proposals for funds to be set aside to complete the building in the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 budgets but the government did not approve the proposals.
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