Judiciary: Udecott's claims about San Fernando court project delays 'misleading'

TWO days after the Urban Development Corporation of TT (Udecott) issued a public notice on the termination of the contract on the San Fernando Supreme Court renovation project, citing scope changes and lengthy delays, the Judiciary has sought to clarify what it called a “misleading statement” on the project.

A statement from the Judiciary on July 30 acknowledged and quoted from Udecott’s claims, part of which read: “Unfortunately, the project faced substantial setbacks due to numerous requests by the Judiciary for variations in the scope and lengthy periods awaiting mandatory approvals from the Judiciary in response to requests by Udecott, which resulted in significant delay.”

In response, the court communications unit of the Judiciary called the characterisation “wholly inaccurate” and insisted that the delays were mainly due to the contractor’s persistent underperformance.

“While the Judiciary acknowledges that infrastructure projects of this nature may face challenges, the characterisation of delays as being primarily due to the Judiciary’s actions is wholly inaccurate and does not reflect the facts,” the statement said.

To support its position, the Judiciary shared a series of letters from Udecott and the contractor ­­– dated April 2, July 4, July 26, and August 22, all of 2024, which reference the contractor’s delays.

The Judiciary promised that further information on the timeline of events, based on its records, will be subsequently shared with the public.

The statement added: “While it is acknowledged that the new board of Udecott may still be acquainting themselves with information and details related to this project, the Judiciary stresses the importance of resolving the issue, completing the project and reopening the court.”

“To that end, the Judiciary requested a meeting with the chairman via letter dated July 23, 2025, in an effort to discuss the project’s issues and arrive at solutions. To date, there has been no response to this letter.”

The statement concluded that “notwithstanding this error”, the Judiciary stands ready to do the work to advance this project in the interest of all stakeholders and the people of TT.

The notice on July 28 recalled that on August 20, 2020, the Judiciary and Udecott, as project manager, signed a memorandum of understanding for the upgrade and renovation of the court at Harris Promenade, San Fernando.

After a rigorous procurement process, Udecott hired a contractor to carry out the work.

However, the project faced major setbacks, which Udecott attributed to frequent request changes by the Judiciary.

After discussions between the contractor and Udecott, Udecott said it had no alternative but to issue a notice of termination of the contract effective July 17, 2025.