Belize Reporter

January 27, 2002

An announcement this week from the Canadian consulting firm AMEC states that AMEC has not signed a contract and does not intend to bid on the design contract for the proposed Chalillo Dam in Belize.

This is a flat contradiction of a statement made by BEL Project Manager Joseph Suknandan on December 27, 2001 when he told Reporter Publisher Harry Lawrence that a design contract had been awarded to AMEC and had been signed around the middle of December, 2001.

AMEC’s senior VP of Corporate Affairs, David Paterson, in a letter to Reporter correspondent Meb Cutlack dated January 11, 2002, stated:

“AMEC has not involvement in the construction of the Chalillo dam. It is AMEC’s understanding that if Belize Electricity Limited and the Belize Department of the Environment do agree to terms and conditions sufficient to proceed with the Challilo project, any design construction work would be expected to be put out to tender on a lump sum basis by the Belize Electricity Company or its parent, Fortis for response by contractors qualified to do the project on an EPC (Engineer, Procure, Construct) design-build basis.

“AMEC has no intention to bid on that work.

“AMEC would however consider providing services to assist BEL in the preparation of technical bid specifications for such third party contactors consistent with any environmental compliance plan set out by Belize Environment.

“AMEC would also consider providing environmental services to efforts required to meet conditions of any such compliance plan.

“However, at this time that is speculative as AMEC does not have a signed contract for any such work beyond the Environmental study we completed last year.”

AMEC has been taking a lot of heat from environmental groups in the U.S. and Canada for its Environmental Impact Assessment produced at Canadian taxpayers’ expense.

This study has been widely viewed as flawed, because it ignored recommendations made by the Natural History Museum of England. There is also a serious contention that AMEC’s geological assessment is wrong and cannot serve as a basis for safe design of the dam.

AMEC’s assumptions about project costs, projected output, and energy alternatives are deemed to be invalid.