YP, China Harbour settle differences
Published:Wednesday | September 14, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
Construction firm Y.P. Seaton & Associates has broken its silence on the impasse bedevilling the airport road rehabilitation programme, claiming that the company is owed millions of dollars by China Harbour Engineering Company.
The local company sought to clear the air, after suggestions were made that it was not paying over funds to suppliers, contractors and truckers.
Y.P. cited fluctuations in labour, transport and material costs and argued that China Harbour was bound under the contractual arrangement to honour these obligations, but has failed to do so.
Y.P. was adamant that it has been paid only a third of what it is owed by China Harbour for transporting material.
As the tension heightened, Y.P. and China Harbour rushed to a meeting yesterday.
At the end, the parties decided to put their differences aside, with work resuming at the Palisadoes Shoreline Protection and Rehabilitation Project after a near three-week stand-off.
Representatives of Y.P. finally spoke after subcontractors complained that they had not been paid by Y.P. for the past six weeks and could not pay their workers.
Deal reached
Assistant project manager of Y.P., Donovan Kong, told The Gleaner that the parties arrived at an arrangement which precipitated the work resumption.
China Harbour had reportedly withheld payments over differences in relation to money spent and work done.
In the midst of the dispute, it was reported that extortionists prowled the area, and threatened Chinese expatriates on the site, while local workers and their trade unions accused the Chinese of working illegally in Jamaica.
Kong stressed that while work had resumed, no additional funds had as yet passed hands.
He said the parties decided that Y.P. Seaton should carry out additional surveys on core fill materials, among a host of other activities, to determine the way forward.
Kong told The Gleaner that the disagreements over core fill material and work done were at the heart of the differences which surfaced between Y.P. and China Harbour.
"This should address money and other issues which caused the project to have lagged behind," he said.
In an advertisement published in The Gleaner yesterday, Y.P. stated it had completed between 20 and 25 per cent of the work and was on schedule to complete the remainder on time.
The company stated that it has hauled and delivered 240,000 tonnes of core fill material. The company added that it has advanced payments to the truckers but has only received one-third owed for materials and transportation.
He noted that when the contract was entered into in May 2010, diesel oil was $77 per litre, but has climbed to $117.