The Privy Council has delivered a judgment in favour of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) against Uniform Building Contractors Limited.
WASA’s legal team was led by former Attorney General, Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan, who said the landmark ruling against Uniform Building Contractors Ltd. will revolutionise the way business is done and how money is spent in the execution of works in the public interest.
In an exclusive interview with TTT News, he noted that the case, which saw a 13-year marathon journey for justice and saved the State-owned utility company close to $25 million, arose out of a contract that was awarded in May 2007.
“It concerned the laying of pipelines from Rio Claro to Mayaro, and the contract was a fixed-date lump-sum contract, whereby the contractor was responsible for the design and execution of the works. However, as often happens, there were variations to the scope of works because the pipelines could not have been laid on the verge and had to be laid in the road itself. As a result of that, the WASA site engineer approved extensive variations for additional works to be done, and as a result of that, a claim for some $14 million was filed together with interest and legal costs.”
Mr. Ramlogan says while fraud was not raised in the courts below, the matter posed a significant challenge for the Water and Sewerage Authority, with its site engineer testifying for the contractor.
“Far too often we see contractors bidding deliberately low sometimes, and once they get the contract, they supplement their bidding price by doing additional works and varying the scope of works. Sometimes this happens with some extent of collaboration or collusion or even corruption with the persons who are representing the public authorities who are there to supervise the works on their behalf.”
Mr. Ramlogan says the ruling should serve as a cautionary tale to contractors engaging in business with public authorities.
“Contractors who do business with public authorities must think carefully about their practices. Shortcuts, any form of collusive conduct, bidding low to get the contract and then seeing it mushroom with scope of works that just arise out of nowhere, those things have no place in public procurement, and it undermines transparency and integrity in the public procurement process.”
Commenting on the victory, Chief Executive Officer of WASA, Mr. Dain Maharaj, said the decision to pursue the appeal was justified and WASA is vindicated.