(Kaieteur News) What appeared to be a “tug of war” between the Government and Sinohydro Limited has ended after the defects on the Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue road project were corrected by the contractor.

Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MPI), Jaipaul Sharma said that the corrective works were done in the first week of December.

A site inspection was then carried out on December 10, by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), MPI, Egis Engineering Limited (a foreign consulting firm) and SRK Engineering Limited.

Satisfied with the works done, the IDB has decided to release the suspended payments to the contractor before December 31.

The Minister said that the contractor has set up barricades along the project site in order to ensure safety for road users and enable a smooth flow of traffic.

Sinohydro has also fixed and covered the drains which caused flooding and affected the many businesses and residents who reside along Sheriff Street and Mandela Avenue.The company pledged to maintain the site in accordance with the contract and will continue works after the “rainy season” concludes.

Meanwhile, Minister Sharma said that he will personally oversee future inspections along with his ministry’s consultants, Egis and SRK engineering.

After the payments were suspended to Sinohydro by the IDB, a state of uncertainty had loomed over the continuation of the US$31M project.

Sinohydro had ceased works, fired workers and removed key equipment from the project site.

The ministry had even released a statement indicating that it was capable enough to do the corrective works, if necessary, and bill the contractor. However, Sharma had insisted that the Chinese contractor must correct the highlighted defects, since they were already paid to do so.

His argument was that part of the funding they had received was to make sure that traffic systems were in place for the safety of road users and also to establish measures to protect the environment.

In fact, it was agreed upon in the contract, but Sinohydro had deliberately neglected to do so, and had even failed to adhere to warnings by the IDB and MPI.

Sharma had suggested that the contractor “get busy” and do the corrective works as soon possible, because the IDB would have closed operations on December 13. He had warned that failure to do so would have resulted in the Contractor not receiving payments until January 2020.