PNM COST OVERRUN

Mega-projects that were incomplete, way past budget and delivery dates; Those projects included:
1. Chaguanas Corporation Administrative Complex — $10 m over budget and 24 months delayed;
2. Prime Minister’s residence and Diplomatic Centre — $200 m over budget;
3. Beverly Hills Housing Project — $106 m over budget and more than five years delayed;
4. NAPA Port of Spain — $234 m over budget and 12 months delayed;
5. SAPA San Fernando — $238 m over budget and several months delayed;
6. Chancery Lane Government Complex — $300 m over budget and several months overdue;
7. Government Legal Affairs Campus — $300 m over budget and 24 months behind schedule;
8. Ministry of Education — $300 m over budget and 20 months delayed;
9. Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba: The original cost of the TAROUBA Stadium was $275 Million. It escalated to $1.5 Billion. That is $1.225 Billion overrun. 10 Years Delay

TOBAGO Hospital

Govt orders probe into Scarborough Hospital...
Government is probing the long overdue Scarborough Hospital the construction cost of which has jumped from almost $136 million in 2002 to $719 million currently—resulting in a of $584.1 million cost overrun.

Government is probing the long overdue Scarborough Hospital the construction cost of which has jumped from almost $136 million in 2002 to $719 million currently—resulting in a of $584.1 million cost overrun.

And the new completion date for the hospital is now March 2011, nine years after work started. Health Minister Therese Baptiste-Cornelis and Tobago Development Minister Vernella Alleyne-Toppin gave the information in a update on the hospital’s stranded status, during yesterday’s post-Cabinet media briefing. Baptiste-Cornelis said Cabinet yesterday approved some $30 million to finish the hospital. Government, however, has mandated Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to launch a forensic audit of the project and also asked the Finance Ministry’s central audit unit to immediately examine the project’s financial requirements up to 2010 inclusive of the additional $30 million.

Baptiste-Cornelis said initial construction of the project started with NH Caribbean in June 2002 at a cost of $136 million. In March 2005, some 35 per cent was complete and NHIC was paid $155 million, she said. The issue, however, later entered arbitration proceedings which cost the state $18 million in legal fees, Baptiste-Cornelis said. She said Nipdec then awarded a contract to China Railway Construction Co (CRCC) for $477 million to finish the project. Another contract worth $16.8 million was awarded by Nipdec to Genivar in December 2009 for design construction and supervision of service. CRCC’s scope of works included two additional buildings, air-conditioning and remedial works. Baptiste-Cornelis said that to date, CRCC was paid $252 million for completion of 72 per cent of the work and supplying equipment. Project management fees to Nidpdec was $11million. Based on all of the above, Baptiste-Cornelis said overall expenditure for the hospital was $449 million currently.


Scarborough Hospital cost overrun now $584m | Archives

ROWLEY ON HOW MALCOLM JONES MANAGED PETROTRIN

HANSARD
Appropriation Bill (Budget) Monday, September 14, 2009 [DR. ROWLEY]
Mr. Speaker, I want to draw your attention to page 71 of this document to tell you, let us face up to what is happening at Petrotrin. I have heard the union talking about this as a union item and I did not pay a lot of attention to it. When I sat down to study the documents I realized what the unions were saying, and we have a big problem here. We entered a gas to liquids project, and this document tells us that the original estimate was $850 million. It has been revised for $1.324 billion, as a result of incomplete engineering at the start, omissions, technical issues and additional testing and project delays.

So if we agree to embark upon a project, I would think that the cost of that project will go into the consideration as to whether in fact we do it or we do not do it. I must tell you, probably the highest paid people in the country are at Petrotrin—high quality skills. So I expect good quality estimates and if they do not have it, they hire people to do it. An $850 million project and we are now talking about a revision to $1.324 billion. That is one project. Another project— Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel Plant. Original estimate when the project was embarked upon, $708 million. It has now gone to $2.4 billion. Project administration— original estimate, $192 million. That has now gone to $427 million. Upgrade of the Fuel Catalyst Unit, the estimate there is now up to $2.1 billion. The CCR Platforming Unit, there is not an estimate—$665 million. It is now at $1.592 billion.

The alkylisation plant, was estimated when it was entered upon, at $586 million; it is now $1.8 billion. The offsite and utilities for this whole programme was estimated to be in the order of $189 million in 2004, it is now $1.7 billion. What happened at Petrotrin that the estimates were so wrong, so far out, or worse, what happened that caused us to enter a programme where the total, when we entered the programme, was $3.3 billion, and we took a decision, "Yes, we could afford that, $3.3 billion."? Most of those programmes are not anywhere near completion. When we took a decision to go down that road, and it may very well be necessary because we have to go into the correct markets and have better products, we took a decision at a cost, at the time, of $3.3 billion. Today, we are looking at a cost of $9.3 billion. We have to digest that in the context now of, "De money done." We are now talking about raising revenue by taxation, "chirrup" "chirrup", household by household, land and building taxes, cigarette and rum taxes, as revenue raising measures. Do not be fooled by that

http://www.ttparliament.org/hansards/hh20090914.pdf

That is PNM style delivery!

Revelations this week about the Shaw Park Cultural Complex confirms how much Tobago, like Trinidad, shares in the contagion of under-planning and overspending on public projects, such as made infamous by the Tarouba Sporting complex.

Shaw Park, now projected to cost $634 million by a new 2014 completion date, falls far short of the $1 billion plus Tarouba costing, but the Complex nonetheless identifies as a Tobago version of a vanity project limited only by scale of the ambition of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). Originally budgeted at $196 million in 2006, the final estimate has ballooned by over 200 per cent.

Shaw Park project a big test for THA

THE COST of the Port-of-Spain waterfront project has more than doubled to $3.4 billion (US$551 million), with the cost overrun on the project, considered to be the jewel in the crown of the Patrick Manning administration, amounting to a massive $1.8 billion (US$286 million).

In August, 2005, when the French construction giant Bouygues Batiment signed the contract to design and build an office, hotel and conference centre on the Port-of-Spain waterfront, the price tag on the project was put at US$265 million ($1.6 billion).

Yesterday, Canadian-owned bank FirstCaribbean issued a release saying that it had completed the financing of the “prestigious” waterfront project with a US$375-million transaction ($2.3 billion).

The FirstCaribbean statement said the US$375 million financing was placed by the bank at a fixed interest rate of 6.09 per cent for 15.9 years on the US private placement market, using an "innovative structure.”

The bank said the current financing followed “earlier interim funding arranged and provided by FirstCaribbean in the amount of US$176 million—US$136 million in December, 2005, and US$40 million in June, 2006—for the project.”

The earlier US$176 million plus the current US$375 million mean that the project financing is estimated at US$551 million, substantially more than the US$265 million allocated in the original budget.

The FirstCaribbean statement said, however, the project was “currently within budget and deadline.”

During the last two years, there have been substantial increases in the cost of local construction labour, materials and equipment—mainly as a result of the enhanced pace of State construction.

The appreciation of the euro against the TT dollar is also believed to have contributed to the cost overrun.

When it signed the contract in August, 2005, Bouygues Batiment was part of a consortium comprising Home Construction Ltd, the CL Financial subsidiary and Hyatt Regency, the global hotel chain which was identified as the top-ranked of three groups last December.

The French contractor/developer will be represented in T&T by its unit Bouygues Batiment International.

The consortium is developing the 150,000-square-meter complex on behalf of a company called the Port-of-Spain Waterfront Development Ltd, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Urban Development Corporation of T&T (Udecott).

The first part of the project is expected to be completed by October, this year, the second phase at the end of 2007, with completion expected by the end of 2008.

The two 26-storey towers at the waterfront project will house corporate offices and a 22-storey, five-star Hotel Hyatt Regency hotel with 428 rooms.

Other features of the project include:

A conference complex containing exhibition space
Pre-function rooms, translation booths and media facilities
Retail shopping facilities
Car park with a 1,200-vehicle capacity
According to the Barbados-based FirstCaribbean, the waterfront project "is one of the urban rehabilitation efforts" being made by the Government. The bank described the waterfront project as being of “strategic importance” to the Government’s development plans in the context of its Vision 2020 for the country.

“Upon completion, it is expected to position the T&T capital as a regional hub for finance, international relations and trade,” according to the bank.

Efforts to contact the bank's spokesman were unsuccessful up to yesterday evening.

A list of questions was e-mailed to Udecott spokesman Danielle Jones at 5.48 pm yesterday. Jones said she was unable to respond, because the officials qualified to provide a comment were not available.

http://legacy.guardian.co.tt/archives/2007-05-25/news11.html