-now slated for December completion
Nearly three years after the controversial award of the $865m Belle Vue Pump Station contract to social media influencer Mikhail Rodrigues better known as Guyanese Critic, the project remains behind schedule but GAICO Construction says it is now on course for completion by December 2026.
Speaking yesterday with Kiskadee Watch, GAICO’s Chief Executive Officer Komal Singh said the project is progressing steadily and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
“The project is on track for a December 2026 completion,” Singh said.
During the site visit, Kiskadee Watch was informed that the overall project is approximately 81 per cent complete, with significant progress made during the month of May. Officials indicated that the north pump inlet is about 81 per cent complete, while works are continuing on the pump station ahead of its anticipated commissioning in December.
The revised timeline comes after local engineering firm GAICO assumed responsibility for completing the project as a subcontractor under the terms of the original contract awarded to Tepui Group Inc which is headed by Rodrigues an who had never built a pump station before.
Despite the progress now being reported, financial questions surrounding the original contract remain unresolved.
The 2024 Auditor General’s Report noted that 93.7 per cent of the mobilisation advance paid to the original contractor, Tepui Group Inc., had not yet been recovered.
Kiskadee Watch yesterday contacted Auditor General Deodat Sharma, who confirmed that engineers within his office are currently examining the figures as part of the preparation of the 2025 Public Accounts Report.
Sharma said the report, once completed and tabled, will address the outstanding mobilisation advance paid under the Belle Vue pump station contract.
The project has attracted intense public scrutiny since it was awarded through the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) to Tepui Group Inc., a company owned by social media personality Rodrigues, despite concerns over its lack of experience.
According to the 2024 Auditor General’s Report, the contract was awarded for $870.563 million against an engineer’s estimate of $779.199 million. The report also found that Tepui failed to satisfy nine of the 18 qualification requirements contained in the evaluation criteria. It further revealed that the initial award of $865.544 million was rescinded before the same contractor was re-awarded the project for an increased sum of $870.564 million, approximately $5 million higher than its original bid.
The Auditor General also reported that by August 2024, $160.894 million had been paid to the contractor despite limited physical progress on the project.
The contract, signed on September 22, 2023, carried an original completion period of 18 months.
The Belle Vue Pump Station has since become one of the country’s most controversial public infrastructure projects, with citizens questioning both the procurement process and the decision to award the contract to a company with no proven record of undertaking works of that scale. The government has faced sustained criticism over the award, while GAICO’s intervention is now expected to finally bring the long-delayed project to completion.
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