A consultant on the contentious Sandals Whitehouse Hotel project said yesterday that variations in costs from the construction budget were approved by Nevalco Consultants, Alston Stewart’s company which the state-run Urban Development Corporation (UDC) used as its site manager.

Brian Nelson, the mechanical and engineering consultant employed by quantity surveyors, Goldson Barrett and Johnson said variation orders – which were referred to the project manager’s office for approval – were done up and sent to all partners. Nelson and company principal, Brian Goldson appeared before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which is trying to determine how the original US$70 million Sandals Whitehouse budget was overrun by US$43 million.

Nelson’s information was critical because the three parties which jointly built the hotel in Westmoreland, are at loggerheads over who was responsible for the massive cost overrun.

The parties are the UDC, the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) and Gorstew, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s holding company and owner of Sandals International which managed the hotel.

UDC employed Nevalco to be its site manager and together they are being blamed for the state of things.

Stewart sued the UDC, the project managers for heavy losses it sustained when the hotel was delivered late and it had to refund early guests their money because of the poor finishing.

Nelson told the PAC yesterday that the contractors, Ashtrom Building Systems received specific approval for variation orders.

Pressed by Audley Shaw, Opposition member of the PAC, who expressed surprise at this bit of information, Nelson said yesterday that the variation orders were received and approved by Nevalco Consultants Limited.

When asked whether the person who signed was Nevalco’s Alston Stewart, Nelson said it could have been another agent of Nevalco who signed.

Nevalco was invited by the PAC to return yesterday for further questions but did not show. In its letter seeking to be excused, the company said it would not be able to appear before January 30.

Another no-show was former head of project partners the NIBJ, Rex James who expressed “surprise” in his letter to PAC chairman, Mike Henry that it was considered necessary for him to reappear.

James asked for more time to prepare, but insisted that he was no longer employed to the NIBJ and was not aware that he could add anything to the forum by making an appearance.

For his part, Goldson maintained that the cost overruns were in the mechanical and engineering area of the project which he had no information on. Shaw asked him how approvals for cost increases above and beyond what was budgeted for were dealt with onsite.

“In cases where there was no time for any redesign or approval whatsoever,” Goldson replied.

“There were no checks and balances as there would be on a normal contract…” he admitted.

Goldson had earlier appeared before the PAC but was returning at the behest of Auditor General Adrian Strachan who told last week’s sitting that Goldson needed to answer further questions from the committee, based on the “very serious charges” laid by project partners, Gorstew at the previous sitting.

Goldson lamented to the PAC that his professional reputation had been severely damaged by the claims being made about the Whitehouse project.

He said that his “character over the past month has been on the streets as unreliable”.

“My whole professional reputation has been bandied around as if I don’t know what I’m doing, so I’m glad for the opportunity to explain what I have done and some of the reasons for the increased costs,” he said.

Goldson dismissed as “unfounded” suggestions by Implementation Limited’s Jeremy Brown who, in an earlier sitting, had described as “unprofessional” the overpricing of marl, concrete and steel used on the project that contributed to the cost overruns. “That statement seemed to have been designed more to cast aspersions on my professional ability than to provide any facts,” Goldson shot back, before reeling off a list of professional bodies of which he was a member.

“I categorically refute the assertions put forward by the accountant,” he added, noting that “even if the rates were overpriced they were already placed in the original US$70 million budget”.

Brown who worked for Gorstew on the project, had charged that overpricing for some purchases for Whitehouse were as high as 40 per cent above market rates. He also suggested that there was excessive pricing on the concrete of approximately US$1.8 million, marl of over US$500,000 and reinforced steel of over $390,000.

Continuing his refutation, Goldson said Gorstew’s allegations that truck loads of tiles left the site were also “misleading”.

“The allegation did not take into consideration that 2 per cent of the amount of tiles ordered were required to be supplied to the owner…If there are surplus tiles the contractor has paid for them out of his profit,” the quantity surveyor noted.

Furthermore, he said, the surplus tiles had been put in storage at a warehouse by the UDC.