Hospital incinerator not abandoned

THE EDITOR: NIPDEC wishes to respond to the article entitled “Million-dollar incinerator abandoned at PoS Hospital”, carried on page three of the Sunday Newsday, June 13, 2004. Unfortunately, the reporter, Ms Neidi Lee-Singh Rojas, appears to have obtained her information primarily from a single source who obviously did not have a full grasp of the entire project.

Over the years we have always made ourselves available to the media and as a result we are concerned that Ms Rojas failed to contact anyone at NIPDEC to obtain more balanced, technical information which would have served to clarify the various aspects of the project.
Consequently, we wish to highlight the following critical points:-
• The incinerator project has not been “abandoned.” The project halted temporarily while new negotiations took place between the Ministry of Health, NIPDEC and the main contractor, International Waste Industries (IWI). Work will resume shortly now that all matters have been settled.
• The incinerator for this project is by no means inferior, and underwent a rigorous selection process. The various components represent the latest in technology and meet the standards imposed by the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
• An incinerator consists of several parts, both internal and external. The visible external casings of the incinerator DO NOT represent the actual working elements of the device. All sensitive components, eg electronic, technical, etc, are still encased in boxes and have been securely stored, away from non-authorised personnel.
• While there may be some level of rusting on the metal facade, this is a minor construction issue which is effectively eliminated through chemical treatment, and most important of all, does not hamper final structural integrity.
• While the Ministry of Health and NIPDEC were engaged in negotiations with IWI, the company had been paid the bulk of its fees.

Therefore, if IWI has not paid its contractor, this was their own internal corporate decision, and the two matters are not related. We trust that this response will be given the same level of prominence as the article. Once again, we are always available to answer questions concerning our projects and welcome queries from the media.

In 2004, NIPDEC celebrates 27 years of providing project management services for some of the largest developmental projects in the nation and in the Eastern Caribbean. We have the greatest concentration of construction/project managers employed in any one company, and are proud of the extensive work we have executed over the years.  Please feel free to contact us for any further information.

TANYA CARR
Communications Coordinator, NIPDEC