Three months later…– Monies withheld from contractor, rains blamedThree months after being “completed”, a number of side streets in Parfait Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, which were contracted for a massive $131M, are already filled with potholes.Several residents came out to complain yesterday over what they described as poor quality work.Yesterday, also, the Ministry of Housing and Water said it is fully aware of the problems and has written the contractor, Kares Engineering Inc., which was responsible for upgrading the roads.As a matter of fact,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, Permanent Secretary Emile Mc Garrell has since said that the Ministry has withheld payments and the company has to correct the works.In May 2010, contracts were signed in two phases for several streets in Westminster, La Parfait Harmonie, West Bank Demerara to be done using the DBST (Double Bituminous Surface Treatment) method.An upset resident points to a pothole.Eagle Transportation and General Construction was awarded the contract to the tune of $116M for one phase while Kares Engineering Inc, a company from Windsor Forest, West Coast Demerara, won the contract for the other, to the tune of $131M.While Eagle is currently carrying out works, the streets being upgraded by Kares were the ones that had the problems.According to Michelle Robinson, a resident of Westminster, rains were falling last year at the time when the company did the roads.“We ask them if it was okay with the rains and they said it was not a problem.”The residents claim that the company laid some tar after rolling the surface and then threw stone, a little tar and covered it with sand.Several other residents also gathered, driving through several of the streets, showing the newspaper the potholes that dotted the road. The shoulders,China Jerseys Cheap, in several sections, were broken and those areas were soft.“They come back two weeks and patch, patch some piece, but the holes coming up. Even the taxis and minibuses don’t want to come at the back here. Look at this… look at this,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, all the stones coming off the surface. This is cock wuk,” another resident expressed angrily.Kaieteur News made contact with Kares Engineering yesterday and a female answered, saying that the owner,NFL Jerseys China, Radesh Rameshwar, was not in. When told that this newspaper was responding to complaints about the works,NFL Jerseys Sale, Kaieteur News’ contact numbers were asked for and subsequently taken.While not identifying herself, the woman admitted that the company had done the roads but it is not to be blamed since rains had affected progress.The woman later called back and said that she had managed to contact her employer and he was advising Kaieteur News to contact the Ministry of Housing for any comments. She then hung up.Speaking with Kaieteur News, Mc Garrell and Senior Engineer, Fazal Wahab, of the Ministry, explained that the contract was signed back in May, with Kares expected to complete the contract by November.It was noted that while a number of the streets were well done, several of them were hampered by heavy rains in November.“We are aware of the problems. They laid the tar but it washed away. The Ministry instructed them to correct the works and they did so… but again it had problems,” the Permanent Secretary said.According to Wahab, Kares Engineering is contractually obligated to repair the streets, about 10 of them, if there are defects, and is currently awaiting improvement in the weather before carrying out those repairs.Road or mud track?The engineer also explained that another problem was the fact that residents forcefully removed barriers from the roads when there were freshly done,Wholesale Jerseys China, causing further damage.Also, it was disclosed that as a measure to ensure that the works are done appropriately, it has not been certified nor has Kares been paid off.The officials disagreed that it was poor work and insisted that rains were to be blamed.