The Government of Antigua and Barbuda holds a possible criminal action case against Wendell Marshall, the former contractor for the Antigua and Barbuda Department of Marine Services (ADOMS) building.
An auditor’s report revealed that the building, which is yet to be completed since 2014, has come up to a total expenditure of over $36.5 million.
The report also revealed that the building is only 60 percent complete to this day and a building like ADOMS should have been completed in 18 months instead of taking more than five years to complete.
Additionally, the report outlined that the lack of a finite budget and no construction schedule were among the inconsistencies noticed, and the budget numbers in the construction manager’s reports were not backed up by calculations.
Minister of Works Lennox Weston has put forward the idea of taking legal action against the contractor who is believed to have deceived the government of millions of dollars for an unfinished building.
Weston, who is also the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance, said that the government is hoping to retrieve the files that Marshall took with him, in order to determine if it has a compelling case.
“We are still reviewing the reports. As you know, the investigator recognized that all the detailed files and cost bills he took with him so you would want to get those back so that the officials can review them to see if they can succeed in a case of criminality as opposed to just sheer gross mismanagement, but a case of criminality has to be proven in terms of hard documentary evidence in terms of meeting the standard.” Weston explained.
“What we do know and as everybody would have indicated, there was gross mismanagement and some highly usual practices like $9 million being spent, like firing the contractors and him taking over, like paying in cash and a lot of highly questionable things that had been done. We would love to get those detailed records of the construction so we can put all of them over to the investigators for them to build a case that would be successful,” Weston disclosed.
Weston, said that at last contact with the contractor, he sent a receipt for freight services, detailing where the buildings missing equipment is being kept.
“Last week we received something called a Bill of Lading [for] the stuff that he was supposed to buy to customize an office when he said they were in storage, when we went to the storage location it was an empty car park. So last week, we received a Bill of Lading after the speech I made at State Insurance, he went and brought them and the Bill of Lading said it was placed on a ship. We are going to see if when the freight comes here if it includes all that he was supposed to buy so that’s the only contact we’ve had,” he added.
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Was Wendell Marshall the Contractor or the Project Manager.Because those two positions on any construction sites are not the same.They would have different levels of responsibility.The Project Manager would report to the Investor.Because he/she would be looking into the interests of the owners.The Contractor is given the contract to build the overall project.He is usually responsible to employed all Sub-Contractors.The Project Manager,Contractor and Owners usually meet on a weekly and or bi-weekly basis to discuss issues and progress and also changes to project.The Project Manager would be the one to sign off on payments to the contractor based on site progress and invoices.So I am at a loss if Wendell Marshall served in both categories on that ADOMS Project.If so,why was that allowed to happen for so many years? Now Weston and Company crying foul.Were they sleeping at the switch while the ship ran aground.Does Weston listen to himself.You tink all a are we trupit.
If those files have been destroyed then there’s not much they can do,as assumption is not hard evidence….
Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! “Where ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be wise.” – Thomas Gray: Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College! Don’t get it twisted, Gray was not condoning or promoting the ignorance of his contemporaries, betters, peers or “deplorables” but is reflecting with fond memories on a time when everyone in their youth was allowed to be ignorant!
In this the International Decade for People of African Descent 4015 -2024, there have been too many projects which have not been completed on Budget, On Time or with the Expected Quality!
Clearly the Consultant took advantage of a poorly executed Contract and acted as a Construction Manager with a Privateer’s Compensation!
ADOMS monitored its registry through a well meaning but disorientated Admiral lacking in agency, a band of mariners with no knowledge of ship building and an Admiralty of the fleet who exercised neither accountability or oversight, demanded no transparency and kept its registry under kegs of Celebratory English Harbour 1981 until the Ship was adrift and sinking before sending out the belated Mayday with anguish cries of S.O,S!
Gray, in his youthful years found the masters (“mad with Pride”) and the Fellows (“sleepy, drunken, dull, illiterate Things”)! Many today would agree and add corrupt to the core!
“The native is declared insensible to ethics; he represents not only the absence of values, but also the negation of values. He is, let us dare to admit, the enemy of values, and in this sense he is the absolute evil. He is the corrosive element, destroying all that comes near him; he is the deforming element, disfiguring all that has to do with beauty or morality; he is the depository of maleficent powers, the unconscious and irretrievable instrument of blind forces.” ― Franz Fanon: The Wretched Of The Earth!
We have been here for 385 years! In 1834, given industry, we were not given the Legal and Obligatory Apprenticeship! WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS!
ABLB again trying to bolt a stable long after the horse has bolted. The man was allowed to leave the state with the files. Does anyone seriously think he will bring them back so that he can be prosecuted? What is needed is a Commission of Inquiry, promise him immunity from jail time if he is truthful and let the chips fall where they may!
Did I hear someone say FRIAR’S HILL Road development is NEXT up for INVESTIGATION?
Or too much to hide?
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