Steer Town high contract cancelled

A contract for the construction of Steer Town high school in St Ann has been terminated due to what the Ministry of Education is calling the non-performance of the contractors.

The education ministry revealed yesterday that it ended the contract with Jatlin Construction & Associates on January 31.

In a release, the ministry said it has sent a letter to the National Contracts Commission for approval to negotiate with the second-lowest bidder for the original contract in the hope of having the work completed for the start of the new school year.

The ministry said it has also written to the National Commercial Bank, asking for the release of the performance guarantee of $48 million.

Months of efforts

The termination of the contract follows months of efforts by the education ministry to have the school completed.

"The efforts of the ministry were hampered by the tardiness of the contractor; labour disputes, including workers not being paid and resultant stoppages and slowdown in work; rains and adverse weather conditions, and the site being closed for various periods due to all these factors," the ministry indicated.

Work on Steer Town high, a 1,200-place school, started in October 2008 and was initially projected to end October 2009. The completion date was revised to January 2010, then to December 2010. It is now projected that the school will be completed by the end of August 2011.

"The initial contract sum was $484 million; the ministry said its release recently there was a variation of just over $55 million to the contract."

The ministry added: "This does not mean the Ministry of Education will be paying out all this money as variation, as there's a contingency sum of $40 million in the contract."