VAMED Engineering yesterday released photographs it says show representatives of Chinese contractor SINOMACH visiting the unfinished Maternal and Paediatric Hospital at Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, eight months before the government terminated its contract.
The Austrian company called on the Ministry of Health to say who authorised the visit and whether it was already considering a replacement while talks with VAMED continued.
VAMED said the photographs, dated November 20, 2025, showed people wearing SINOMACH insignia entering the site with personnel from VIKAB Guyana Ltd., the ministry’s supervising engineer. The company said the visit took place without its knowledge or permission. SINOMACH is the parent company of China CAMC Engineering, which built six regional hospitals for the ministry.
VAMED’s country project manager, Diana Lopes, said VIKAB personnel took the visitors past security and that a VAMED employee raised the alarm after noticing people in different safety vests. VAMED said VIKAB told its staff the visitors had come to observe site organisation and safety practices. The company said its environmental, health and safety manager had received no notice of the visit and was never asked to accompany the group.
The company said it lodged a formal complaint with VIKAB and the ministry and was yet to receive a substantive explanation from the ministry. Its representative in Guyana, Dr João Pedro da Silva Teles, said the visit raised questions about assurances the company had received during negotiations.
“The Minister and the Permanent Secretary kept assuring us they wanted to find a solution, that they were negotiating in good faith, that there was a way forward,” Teles said.
VAMED said the visit took place nine days after the hospital’s financing arrangement involving UniCredit Bank Austria and UK Export Finance expired without renewal. The company said it learnt of the lapse months later and had continued using its own funds to pay subcontractors, retain technical staff and advance work at Goedverwagting and at the New Amsterdam Hospital Campus.
The company reiterated that it had gone unpaid for certified work, that containers of construction materials had remained at ports awaiting clearance documentation and that work visas for technical staff had been delayed. It called on President Irfaan Ali to intervene and said it remained ready to complete both hospitals.
The government has previously rejected VAMED’s account of the delays, saying persistent delays, inadequate mobilisation and failure to meet contractual requirements led to the termination of both contracts. Kiskadee Watch reported in August that Ali confirmed the contracts were terminated on July 23, 2026, and that proceedings before the International Chamber of Commerce began on July 28. Attorney General Anil Nandlall SC later said Guyana would be the seat of the arbitration.
The €149 million Goedverwagting hospital project was launched in July 2022 and was originally expected to be completed in 2025. The 256-bed facility was designed as a national referral centre for specialised maternal and paediatric care, including neonatal intensive care.
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