By: Kebba Ansu Manneh
Alhagie Shering Fallou Mendee, Managing Director of Lerr Group Construction Company has blamed the Gambia Tourism Board (GTBoard) for the delay encountered in constructing the five Eco-lodges handling by his construction company in different regions of the country.
He said the delay was also inundated with the flood caused by the rain in Barra.
Lerr Group, a local construction company has signed a contract with the Gambia Tourism Board in March, 2020, for the construction of five Eco-Lodges at the total sum of D97million (ninety seven million dalasis) for a duration of nine months.
According to tourism authorities the eco-lodges are located in Barra – North Bank Region; Kunkiling Forest Park, Central River Region, Sotuma Samba – Upper River Region, Nyana Bantang and Arafat in the Central River Region.
However, the construction of these eco-lodges has been halted for a while prompting general decry to the pace of the project that supposed to last less than a year.
Reacting to the development, Alhagie Shering Fallou Mendee, Managing Director of Lerr Group, said the delay in the construction of the five Eco-Lodges is not the fault of his Company but rather on the part of GTBoard, saying the original plan of the project has been changed from hotel to eco-lodges by the tourism authorities.
“We signed the contract in March 2020, but we couldn’t start the project until October when the consultant was ready with the designs. They didn’t appoint the consultant in time which could have allowed us to start the work in time and finish in time,” said Alhagie Shering Fallou Mendee, Managing Director of Lerr Group.
He went on that “We were able to get the designs for Kunkilling and Sotuma in February of 2021. To be clear we signed the contract in March, 2020 and started the work in October, 2020 and hadn’t been that we started the work early we would have completed these eco-lodges in the right time.”
Lerr Group, Managing Director continued to disclosed that GTBoard has been notified of the circumstances delaying the project and his company has requested extra D5 million (five million dalasis) from GTBoard to be able to complete the project but to no avail.
“The work could have gone faster if GTBoard and the Ministry of Tourism answered to our request that we made. However, for the Barra project our main obstacle has been the inundation of the place by flood from the rain,” Mendee revealed to this medium.
Reacting to allegations that Lerr Group has not used the right materials to construct the Eco-Lodges, Alhagie Shering Fallou Mendee, said such allegations are baseless and misleading, adding that after the assessment of the site with the consultant of the project it was discovered that all issues raised by the GTBoard were unmerited.
“There were complaints that the bricks we used are sub-standard which we deny. We challenged them to prove that the bricks are sub-standard but they cannot prove that still now,” Lerr Managing Director clarified.
According to him, Lerr Group is doing everything possible to ensuring that the projects finish in time, noting that the company has already secured a brick making machine from South Africa that is already in town in a bid to expedite the construction process of the Eco-Lodges.
He expressed his disappointment to the National Assembly petition Committee for not doing their job correctly, arguing that the committee could have involved experts on the matter but failed to do so.
“I was very angry with the National Assembly Members for allowing themselves to be used in the manner they have been used. If anybody who cries foul and writes a petition now has the rights to be entertained in the most august body in our country is just disappointing,” Lerr Group Managing Director reacted to a petition before the National Assembly.
He added: “What they (National Assembly Members) could have done is to entertain these people (petitioners) and then asked a select group of knowledgeable construction people to look into the petition and get their report to the National Assembly. The National Assembly is not a body that we can play with and people must see the National Assembly as the last point of call to ascertain the truth from both sides but they cannot be judge, jury and executioners.”
He added that the National Assembly cannot do the job of technicians, adding that issues raised in the petition are technical matters that can only be done by technicians not the National Assembly Members.