Tuesday, November 3, 2009

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Straw market dispute lingers By CANDIA DAMES ~ Guardian News Editor ~ candia@nasguard.com: The architect who was hired by the Christie administration to design a $23 million straw market has asked the Supreme Court to appoint an arbitrator to settle his dispute with the current government, in relation to more than $1 million he claims he is owed as a result of a 2007 decision to terminate the contract for the Bay Street structure. The Nassau Guardian understands that two-and-a-half years after the Ingraham administration terminated the contract to build the market, architect Michael Foster, contractor Ashley Glinton of Woslee Construction, and other professionals who were involved in the project have still not been paid. Foster's attorney, Wayne Munroe, confirmed to The Nassau Guardian yesterday that he and his client, along with an attorney from the Office of the Attorney General, recently appeared before Justice Rhonda Bain on the matter. "At the point that they purported to cancel the contract he (Foster) had paid subcontractors for work that he submitted (to the government) certificates for payments for," Munroe explained. "Those certificates were not paid. The amount that they had offered was less than the amount that he had paid to the subcontractors and it bore no relationship to two other certificates that were outstanding." Munroe said not long after the government canceled the contract, his client wrote to the government asking it to settle what was owed him, but it failed to. "We wrote to them seeking to resolve it because you're supposed to seek to settle matters before you litigate them," he said. "They didn't resolve it. They made no effort to try to resolve it when we wrote to [the government] so we went about [seeking to have appointed] an arbitrator to arbitrate the dispute and they didn't answer then either and so it ended up at a point where them not having answered we took out an action in court to appoint the arbitrator." Munroe said it was at this point that the government made an offer that was "unrealistically low". He added that the matter was adjourned to allow for further settlement discussions. "If it bears no fruit then we would be going back to Justice Rhonda Bain to have an arbitrator appointed so that they can arbitrate the dispute," Munroe said. The Christie-led government signed the contract in February 2007, promising a state-of-the-art facility to replace the Bay Street market which was destroyed by fire in September 2001. In June 2007, then Minister of Public Works and Transport Dr. Earl Deveaux said the government halted work on the straw market because the value of the project was out of line with the quantity surveyor's costing. He also said that while space had been allocated for vendors' stalls, there was no provision in the contract for the construction of the stalls. Deveaux also said the government had decided that $23 million was too much money to spend on a new market. When he announced plans in June 2007 to cancel the contract, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said there was concern that the structure was inappropriate for the straw market. He added, "Known and experienced contractors, I'm told, submitted bids for this project in the range of $30 million, but the contract was awarded to a contractor with limited experience, if any, at that level of construction whose bid, I'm told, was below even the estimates of the quantity surveying division of the Ministry of Public Works." Yesterday Munroe indicated that his client is disappointed that this matter has dragged on for so long. "If the government had taken a decision to cancel this contract it should have known that there would be an obligation to pay and if not to pay... certainly to engage in the process of arbitration," said Munroe, adding that the government would face legal costs around $25,000 connected to the appointment of an arbitrator. He said such costs to taxpayers would have been totally unnecessary had the government acted promptly in the matter. Last year Glinton, the project's contractor, told The Nassau Guardian that it was nine months after the prime minister's declaration before he received anything in writing advising him of the cancellation. The correspondence was reportedly sent days after Ingraham told reporters at a press conference in February 2008 that he did not know whether the contract had been settled. Minister of Public Works Neko Grant previously assured that when the government has concluded the matter it will reveal all details connected with it. Deputy Prime Minister Brent Symonette, who is currently also the attorney general, told The Nassau Guardian yesterday that the matter is in the purview of the Ministry of Public Works although the Office of the Attorney General has been providing legal advice. He said as far as he is aware negotiations are ongoing to reach a settlement. The former government signed the contract with Woslee on February 18, 2007, with government officials saying $23 million was the largest sum of money ever committed to any government building. The plan called for the top level of the building to have 5,000 square feet on the Bay Street side for business ventures and another 5,000 square feet on the harbor side for a restaurant. At the center of the market, a 100-foot observation tower was planned. Under the contract, the market had an interior village concept with each stall being a clapboard façade of a house with a porch where craft work would be displayed. Officials had said the market would have a total of 36 toilets, be 100 percent handicap-friendly and equipped with a fire fighting system. Officials had also said Woslee Construction, which was selected after submitting one of five bids, has been working in the industry for over 20 years in The Bahamas and internationally. The market that the government now expects to begin building in December is expected to cost no more than $10 million. Bids are due by the end of this month. Several months ago Prime Minister Ingraham presented to the House of Assembly the architectural drawings of the proposed market. According to the new market architect Patrick Rahming, the likely construction time for the market is 16 to 18 months based on the site's location on Bay Street, where there is significant congestion. This would mean that the market would be finished sometime between April and June 2011. The previous planned market was scheduled to be completed more than a year ago. Wednesday November 4, 2009