Alan Roffey Androgroup CEO

By Kevin Shereves
Kevin@caymannetnwews.com

One hundred workers employed by Androgroup, providing labour on the Clifton Hunter and John Gray High Schools project, now face being laid off following stoppage of construction on the school sites.

Androgroup, through its associate company Caribbean Mechanical (High Schools 2008), was sub-contracted by main contractor Tom Jones International (TJI), which withdrew its services on Friday, 13 November, citing lack of government funding.

The company supplies electricians, plumbers, air conditioning technicians, elevator technicians, fire alarm and fire protection services and a number of mechanical systems on the schools project sites.

Androgroup CEO Alan Roffey said though his employees are not quite out of a job yet, there is a high possibility that the company may be forced to lay off workers if work on the site is discontinued for seven days or more.

“We did give them notices that they will be laid off seven days following the work stoppage, but the notice period does not run out until Thursday evening,” Mr Roffey confirmed.

“If the work does not restart. we will be obliged to file more notices with senior staff. We could end up losing up to 100 people or eighty percent of our staff,” he further explained.

Mr Roffey said, “It cost us a lot of money to stop work in late September and now we are back in the same position again.

“We only stopped work because our paymaster (TJI) told us to stop work and we did as we were told but, if they ask us to start working again, we will. The Government said that they want the project to go ahead but we are the sub contractors and when TJI asked us to stop working we had no choice but to comply.

“We are ready, willing and able to get back to work immediately,” Mr Roffey told Cayman Net News.

“It is in the interest of the Ministry of Education, our employees and future generations of Caymanians that the school projects get completed,” he noted.

“A week in politics is a long time but a day in construction is a long time in terms of costs. Each day that we are off the job it costs between CI$30,000 - CI$I50,000 in wages, salaries and lost revenue,” the Androgroup CEO noted.

“I don’t have anything other than my usual optimism to go on. It is like riding a roller coaster. The schools project is a big part of our operation. When we stop work like this we lose pro-activity,” Mr Roffey said.

He said his management team is currently reassuring the employees and keeping them occupied during the work stoppage, removing inventory and tools from the job site.

Meanwhile, in a statement released Tuesday by TJI spokesperson David Legge, the company noted that despite numerous efforts over the last six weeks, which included meetings with the Government-appointed project manager as well as correspondence with the Ministry of Education, they were yet to receive a solution for issues surrounding outstanding payments, and therefore were forced to withdraw their services.

“At the heart of the issue is Government’s ability -- or lack thereof -- to pay for the work. While the Government has continually stated that it has budgeted funds to complete the projects, a line item in a budget, in practical financial terms, means nothing,” the statement read.

TJI also lashed out at the previous People’s Progressive Movement administration, saying the school projects were a large part of their spending spree that was “ill–conceived, poorly executed, over–indulgent, and insufficiently funded.”

The contractors said that initial planning for the project surrounded a “wish list” of every conceivable “bell and whistle”, which included what TJI termed as “non-essential, items” such as “a four-star gourmet kitchen and a state-of-the-art recording studio that would have been suitable for producing the Beatles greatest hits.”

This wish list, the company noted, was later scaled down to reflect “financial reality,” adding that the project they initially bid on was different from the one they were now building.

“To date, the Ministry of Education has made more than 85 significant changes to their original plans for the two schools -- increasing (so far) the costs of the projects by approximately CI$17 million,” TJI said, noting that the Ministry never budgeted any funds for these changes or any other contingencies, including the furniture and fixtures.

The company said they only exercised their rights under the contract, asked Government to provide assurance, in the form of a trust or a payment bond, that it has the financial wherewithal to meet on time its financial obligations to complete the schools. “Government has steadfastly refused to provide such assurances,” TJI said.

TJI also noted that the company was looking for a speedy resolution of outstanding issues, returning to the worksites, and completing the projects under the explicit terms of its contract with Government.