SCG, ZHANG GOT $2B IN PROJECTS FROM UDECOTT
Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2010 12:50 am
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WHILE his company was at work on billion-dollar Udecott projects, Michael Zhang, managing director of Chinese firm SCG International (Trinidad and Tobago), received a private cut out of the work at the Ministry of Legal Affairs project in Port-of-Spain from Sunway Construction Caribbean Limited, the controversial Malaysian company now under police probe for alleged links to former Udecott chairman Calder Hart.
Zhang, who is said to be Chinese, was quietly awarded a private sub-contract on the Legal Affairs project by Sunway through his own company, Times Construction Company Limited, to do work on the $368 million skyscraper project in downtown Port-of-Spain, according to documents.
The disclosure is just one in a series of findings unearthed by a Sunday Newsday investigation into Zhang’s links with Udecott. That investigation has revealed that while SCG and Zhang worked on and bid for Udecott projects, Zhang:
* received work off of the controversial $368 million Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower contract awarded to Sunway, a company with alleged family ties to Hart;
* helmed SCG when the company received a $180 million contract for the construction of five police stations just 12 days shy of the 2010 General Elections and after Udecott staff came under some pressure from the Ministry of National Security to get the contracts out;
* shared some responsibility, through his company Times Construction Company Limited, for failing to give Chinese worker Xia Deyun, safety training which could have prevented Deyun’s worksite death at the site of the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower on January 29, 2008;
* is tied to companies that have received more than $2 billion in Udecott projects.
WHILE his company was at work on billion-dollar Udecott projects, Michael Zhang, managing director of Chinese firm SCG International (Trinidad and Tobago), received a private cut out of the work at the Ministry of Legal Affairs project in Port-of-Spain from Sunway Construction Caribbean Limited, the controversial Malaysian company now under police probe for alleged links to former Udecott chairman Calder Hart.
Zhang, who is said to be Chinese, was quietly awarded a private sub-contract on the Legal Affairs project by Sunway through his own company, Times Construction Company Limited, to do work on the $368 million skyscraper project in downtown Port-of-Spain, according to documents.
The disclosure is just one in a series of findings unearthed by a Sunday Newsday investigation into Zhang’s links with Udecott. That investigation has revealed that while SCG and Zhang worked on and bid for Udecott projects, Zhang:
* received work off of the controversial $368 million Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower contract awarded to Sunway, a company with alleged family ties to Hart;
* helmed SCG when the company received a $180 million contract for the construction of five police stations just 12 days shy of the 2010 General Elections and after Udecott staff came under some pressure from the Ministry of National Security to get the contracts out;
* shared some responsibility, through his company Times Construction Company Limited, for failing to give Chinese worker Xia Deyun, safety training which could have prevented Deyun’s worksite death at the site of the Ministry of Legal Affairs Tower on January 29, 2008;
* is tied to companies that have received more than $2 billion in Udecott projects.