AT least 19 drainage contractors up North claim the Government owed them millions of dollars.
While some contractors have been fully paid, Waterways Minister Tomasi Tunabuna admitted others have not as investigations continue into the legitimacy of their claims.
“The issue has been verified whether the work claimed was actually done,” Mr Tunabuna said.
While he wouldn’t disclose the exact amount, the minister said “millions of dollars”.
“The final amount will depend on what work has been properly completed,” he said. In some cases, contractors carried out extra work without approval and then submitted claims for it.
“While contractors may have been hired to desilt two kilometres of drains, some went on to desilt four kilometres, then asked to be paid for the additional work, work they were never contracted to do, and for which no variation was approved.”
Mr Tunabuna said the ministry had sought a legal opinion on the issue.
In the meantime, Labour Party leader Mahendra Chaudhry says the contractors have been waiting for at least a year for their payments.
“It is a clear breach of contract,” he said.
Mr Chaudhry claims this was not an isolated issue as there were many similar cases across government where contract payments were delayed because funds were simply not available.
Northen drainage projects to take a hit
DRAINAGE projects across the North Division are expected to take a major hit as the ministry responsible continues to grapple with unpaid contractors and a system the minister himself admits needs fixing.
Waterways Minister Tomasi Tunabuna said long-standing delays in drainage work had already slowed production up North.
“Drainage work has traditionally been delayed for long periods, and production has suffered because of waterlogging,” he said.
With the wet season here, he said the situation was set to worsen.
“We’ve seen the benefits of the drainage work we managed to clear, but it will be affected because the drains were not cleared according to schedule.”
Mr Tunabuna said the timing could not be worse.
“We are now going into the wet season, and it will be difficult to continue the work once the rains set in. This has significantly slowed our work in the Northern Division.
“The other divisions are doing very well, very, very well, but the Northern Division is badly affected, and we are already working on procedures to address the issue.
Asked to identify the cause of the setbacks, the minister pointed to issues within the drainage board itself.
“The drainage board is run by regional divisions.
The challenge, as I’ve been informed, is with those who were running the board.”
He said that they would need to review the work that has been done and look into possible personnel issues.
