Staunch Limited, one of the four companies that bid on the multi-storey 72-apartment re-development of the Affordable Housing Initiative site off Eastern Avenue, received four contracts from government, former Housing Minister Frank McField said this week.
Mr. McField confirmed that Staunch had been given government contracts to repair existing AHI homes that had been seriously damaged by Hurricane Ivan.
‘They also got the contract to rebuild seven totally destroyed homes,’ Mr. McField said, adding that two of those homes were at the Windsor Park AHI site and five were at the West Bay site.
Another contract to repair 132 lightly damaged AHI homes was awarded to the company Vetromeccaniche.
‘This was done simply because they had built the homes in the first place,’ said consultant project manager Andrew Gibb. ‘Their bid was competitive, and this view was supported by the loss adjusters.’
Although the contracts were not put out to tender, at least two bids were acquired for each of the projects, Mr. Gibb said.
Mr. McField said Staunch also received a contract to build some 20 temporary houses and a laundry facility at the site near Fairbanks Prison.
Sources say the latter two contracts did not pertain to the AHI, but to the NHCDT’s role in temporary housing after Hurricane Ivan.
Responding to reports that little work had been done on some of Staunch’s contracts despite a large percentage of money’s paid, Mr. McField acknowledged a delay.
‘Staunch was behind their projected target date because of difficulties in getting materials,’ Mr. McField said. ‘They couldn’t get materials from Europe where the original materials came from because the Euro is too high now and it would have cost double. They eventually found a source in Mexico.’
Representatives from Staunch declined to comment on the status of its works in progress.
NHCDT manager Roger Bodden confirmed nearly all the repair work on the damaged AHI homes -that contracted to both Vetromeccaniche and Staunch – had been completed.
‘It’s the rebuilding that their still working on,’ he said, confirming the work is behind schedule.
Mr. Bodden said the work out at the site near Fairbanks prison is also behind schedule.
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