In an unprecedented move, the Government has quietly fired a Chinese contractor it hired two years ago to build the Princes Town East Secondary School, citing a lack of delivery on nearly 90 per cent of the $151 milllion project.

And, a local company which hired Chinese workers to work on at least two major Government projects, appears to be in major violation of T&T labour laws, binding Chinese workers into a modern-day apprenticeship akin to slavery.

These revelations come in the wake of last Tuesday’s protest action by Chinese workers with the Beijing Liu Jiang Construction company-they claimed not having been paid salaries for two months, having no food to eat, squalid living conditions and long hours of work, from dawn till dusk.

The Government’s secret move to fire the Chinese firm from the job has resulted in top local contractor Emile Elias calling on Prime Minister Patrick Manning to review his Government’s unofficial policy of hiring mainly Chinese contractors for mega-billion dollar State projects. Elias also wants Manning to publicly explanation why these foreign contractors are lagging behind in projects, and why they are allegedly engaging in breaches of labour and humanitarian laws regarding their workers.

Elias also wants Government to explain whether it has been directly responsible for violating international and local labour laws to ensure that these Chinese firms get lucrative contracts at the expense of local citizens losing jobs in an environment of growing economic duress and unemployment in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Chinese firm which was terminated from the Princes Town East Secondary School project is the China Zhejiang Ningbo Construction Company Ltd. It was hired by a Government Special Purposes company, the Education Facilities Company Ltd, to construct the Princes Town school, as well as the Siparia Junior Secondary School.

In a letter dated September 7, 2009 to the firm, which is signed by the EFCL’s CEO, Paul E Taylor, the EFCL notes that Ningbo Construction was given the contract to construct the school on June 4, 2007, with a completion date of October 3, 2009.

The contract price was $151,304,347.83.

EFCL’s CEO Taylor goes on to tell the company that:

’The Engineer, Reynald Associate Ltd (RAL), for the project has informed by letter dated June 24, 2009 that as at June 24, 2009, 90 per cent of the contract period has elapsed and only 13 per cent of the works have been completed.’

Taylor further tells the company that in letters from the Engineer dated June 24, July 9 and July 22, 2009, Ningbo Construction was notified to submit a recovery plan of the lost time in accordance with Clause 8.6 of the conditions of the contract on a number of occasions. The Engineer had also pointed out that ’there has been no significant work done on the site over the last two months,’ and ’the rate of progress is way below what is required to complete works within the Time for Completion.’

The Engineer further noted that the company, ’Was requested to submit a revised work programme and method statement detailing actions that was intended to expedite progress and proceed with the works in accordance with the revised work programme.’

Taylor tells Ningbo Construction that in the letter dated July 9, 2009, the Engineer had informed the company that ’you have failed to proceed with the works with due diligence and under Clause 15.1 of the Conditions of the Contract, notice was given to you that if no significant change in the rate of progress of the works was made within 14 days of the said notice, then recommended action in accordance with Clause 15 of the conditions of the contract will be made to the Employer, the EFCL.’

Noting that by letter dated August 12, 2009, ’The actual progress of the works has fallen further behind the current programme of works’, the EFCL tells Ningbo Construction that the contract was officially terminated on September 21, 2009.

The letter does not state how much in financial losses that the State, and therefore taxpayers, have incurred due to the termination of the $151m plus contract.

This is the first time that Government has actually taken the last resort, drastic action of terminating a contract due to non-performance, especially regarding a Chinese firm.

In the past two years, however, several of the Chinese firms hired by Government special purposes companies to conduct works have incurred heavy cost overruns on various mega-million dollar projects, as well as failed to deliver these projects on time.

These include China Jiang Su, the firm hired to construct the Tamana project by ETECK, which, in February 2008, was two and a half years overdue on the project, and which demanded $50m more to continue-which was paid by the Government.

The group Shanghai Construction Ltd, which constructed the Prime Minister’s $150m residence, was also over time and over budget.

This firm was also hired by UDeCOTT to construct the Ministry of Social Development Tower, which was also hit with cost overruns and allegations (following official complaints by UDeCOTT’s consultant on the project) that the firm was importing unsafe steel to do the job. UDeCOTT subsequently said the materials were all safe.

Shanghai Construction Ltd was also hired by UDeCOTT to construct the Academy for the Performing Arts, which is still under active construction in Port of Spain, even though its completion date was put at August 2008.