On October 4, Mr. Nguyen Van Sol, Director of the ODA and NGO Project Management Board of Ca Mau province, the unit supervising the construction of the freshwater reservoir, said that he is in the process of requesting an extension of the construction period until 2024.
More than 9 months behind schedule and no extension has been agreed
The construction of a freshwater reservoir (construction package No. 67) belongs to Sub-project (DA) 8 "Investment in infrastructure construction to prevent and combat coastal erosion, provide fresh water and serve shrimp and forest farming in coastal areas of Ca Mau province". This project belongs to the ICRSL project, built in Khanh An commune, Minh district, Ca Mau.
The project has an investment capital of 184 billion VND, which is an ODA loan from the World Bank, invested by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ca Mau. The construction unit is a joint venture of Thoi Binh Construction and Trading Joint Stock Company and Ca Mau Irrigation Construction Joint Stock Company.
By December 31, 2022, the progress of the freshwater reservoir contract implementation will reach about 60% of the contract value.
According to information from the investor, the freshwater reservoir project started on January 8, 2022, with a construction period of 365 days, meaning it must be completed by December 31, 2022. However, the contract implementation progress up to December 31, 2022 reached about 60% of the contract value.
Currently, the project is more than 9 months behind schedule and the investor is requesting an extension until April 30, 2024. "Extending the construction time will lead to increased construction costs. If the cost increases, will we get additional loans from the World Bank or from state capital? If the time is extended, the contractor increases the construction cost, and the investor does not accept it, who is responsible for the increased cost?", an official from the Ca Mau Department of Construction asked.
In particular, in a report of the investor, the opinions of related units including design consultants and construction supervision consultants (ODA and NGO Project Management Board of Ca Mau province) were stated. However, only the supervision consultant unit proposed to extend the construction period to April 30, 2024, while the design consultant unit had no opinion.
The Department of Construction has refused to extend the contract implementation three times.
Afterthe President and Prime Minister adjusted the implementation time of ICRSL project and ODA loan disbursement to June 30, 2024, the Chairman of Ca Mau Provincial People's Committee also adjusted the implementation time of Sub-project 8 to June 30, 2024.
Immediately after that, the investor proposed that the People's Committee of Ca Mau province adjust the contract implementation time for the freshwater reservoir project package to June 30, 2024 to complete the remaining volume of the signed contract.
Ca Mau Department of Construction has three times refused to extend the implementation of the freshwater lake project in Khanh An commune, Minh Huu district.
Implementing the opinion of the Chairman of the People's Committee of Ca Mau province on consulting the proposal of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, on January 30, 2023, the Department of Construction issued an official dispatch requesting the Provincial People's Committee to adjust the implementation time of construction package No. 67 to October 22, 2023 (increasing by 295 days, the total construction time is 660 days to match the contractor selection plan approved in Decision No. 2148/QD-UBND dated November 6, 2020).
Following the proposal of the Department of Construction, on February 3, 2023, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Ca Mau province issued an official dispatch requesting a review of the content of the adjustment of the implementation time of the contract for the freshwater reservoir package. The investor continued to review and propose the Provincial People's Committee to adjust the implementation time of the construction package contract No. 67 to April 30, 2024.
However, on February 15, 2023, the Department of Construction issued an official dispatch disagreeing with the above proposal of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, and at the same time requested clarification of some contents related to costs, technical requirements and loan agreements.
On April 21, 2023, the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development again reported on the review of related contents, proposing to adjust the implementation period of construction package contract No. 67 to April 30, 2024. On April 27, 2023, the Department of Construction continued to issue an official dispatch with no consensus proposing to adjust the implementation period of construction package contract No. 67 to April 30, 2024.
The lake was at risk of subsidence.
In Official Dispatch No. 1722/SNN-XD dated May 5, 2023 of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Ca Mau sent to the Department of Construction, it stated: Recently, at some locations in the lake roof area and the lake embankment, there have been some signs showing that the lake roof is at risk of subsidence, deep sliding and instability of the embankment combined with the traffic road around the lake if the technical parameters are not adjusted such as: reducing the ground elevation around the lake, increasing the lake roof coefficient, increasing the clearance width, moving the embankment and traffic road away from the edge of the lake, changing construction methods to suit the weather conditions, local terrain of the lake roof area, the lake embankment... These adjustments lead to adjustments to the basic design and adjustments to the feasibility study report.
According to the investor, the freshwater reservoir was at risk of subsidence, deep slide and bank instability.
An official from the Ca Mau Department of Construction explained: "The proposed adjustment needs to be considered. Relevant agencies need to re-evaluate the design documents that have been examined to serve as a basis for appraisal and approval. If the construction occurs as reported by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the responsibility of the design consultants, appraisal consultants, construction contractors and other relevant units for the current quality of the project must be considered."
This person also asked: "In the settlement of the volume of work performed, the investor must be responsible for accepting the volume and quality of completed work in accordance with the content of the signed contracts (on design, construction, supervision, etc.) and current state regulations on construction management. The contractor said that it is difficult to construct in the rain, the nature of the project is muddy, the rainy season lasts 6 months, so the progress is slow. Thus, the initial design that the construction unit created for this project ignored the above characteristics."
Mr. Sol added that the investor of the freshwater reservoir project has paid the contractor about 70% of the contract volume, equivalent to 140 billion VND.
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