ALSTON Stewart, the head of Nevalco Consultants Limited which acted as site manager for the project managers of the contentious Sandals Whitehouse project, yesterday rejected blame for the huge cost overruns on the project and pointed to Sandals, one of the partners, as culpable.

Giving a spirited defence of his stewardship on the project, Stewart, whose company acted for the state-run Urban Development Corporation (UDC), told Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the majority of the US$43-million cost overruns could be attributed to the actions of Sandals Resorts International (SRI) and its agent, Implementation Limited.

Quizzed incesssantly by opposition members on the PAC who insisted it was his job to bring the project in on time and to monitor the project effectively, for which he was paid $42 million by the UDC, Stewart claimed his authority was usurped by Implementation Limited which “exercised undue influence” over the lead contractors on the project.

He insisted that the issue was brought to the attention of the boards of the UDC and Ackendown on a number of occasions and was the subject of attention at several meetings to find ways of reducing and eliminating the problems.

Ackendown Newtown is the joint venture company which built and own the Whitehouse Hotel in Westmoreland. The other two partners are the UDC and the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ).

Sandals, which also manages the hotel, is in court with the UDC, blaming it for massive losses suffered by the hotel chain because of delays in opening the hotel and poor finishes that forced Sandals to refund huge sums of money to the early guests.

Stewart’s claims contradicted the report of the forensic auditors who probed the cost overruns and concluded: “The management procedures established for the control of this project were almost never adhered to. For this, the project manager must accept full responsibility.”

Asked why certain administrative procedures had not been followed, Stewart insisted that this was not because he refused to follow them but “because there were major players who refused to follow them”.

He said Sandals had repeatedly circumvented the established system for making changes on the project, using the leverage given it by the Technical Services Agreement which guided the project.

Said Stewart: “It has to do with SRI and Implementation Limited going around the established system on site to which the decisions that I ought to have been making were being made for me and were made known to me at a point where it was either much too late or much too expensive to correct.”

Stewart also argued that since Sandals was responsible for specifications it was responsible for guiding the design to keep it within budget.

When pressed by PAC Chair Mike Henry as to why no mention of the budget overruns was represented in the minutes of the various site meetings which were held during the period the hotel was under construction, Stewart maintained that all parties knew of the relevant costs.

He told the PAC that if project managers, ANDCO and UDC, “had not put their foot down in very very firm terms”, the costs could have been more, pointing out that there “were several very expensive features in the project which were eliminated,” by Dr (Vin) Lawrence, himself and the project architect.

“At that stage there was nothing other than abandoning the project, in which case we would be here for a different reason. So it is not that any single stroke of the pen or negligence on anyone’s part and I will go to my grave with this position…,” Stewart declared.

Mike Henry, in the chair for Audley Shaw, wanted to know if at any point in time ‘alarm bells’ had gone off, as the additional costs were being incurred. Stewart maintained that at no point in time was he able to pin a final cost on the project, because of the ‘design as you build’ nature of the project.

Stewart’s claims about the influence exercised by Implementation Limited and Sandals were supported by Dr Lawrence, chairman of the UDC at the time of construction. Lawrence reiterated statements he had made previously arguing against situations where any one party or partner can unilaterally control and influence the design and specifications for a project after its commencement.

Government member K D Knight also contradicted the US$43.35 million figure given by the forensic auditors for the cost overrun, saying the “real cost” was US$15.3 million. According to Knight, only US$15 million of the sum represented cost overruns, arguing further that the PAC could not in the final analysis determine liability.

For the past two weeks, Lawrence and Stewart have been under the PAC’s probe regarding the UDC’s role in the cost overruns at the Whitehouse hotel, which Sandals owner, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart (no relation) had hoped would act as a springboard for the development of Jamaica’s south coast.