DRAFT My Ref. No. Project Director, CAREP-NP Irrigation, Kilinochchi.

Dear Sir,

Conflict Affected Region Emergency (CARE) Project Northern Province Irrigation Consultancy Services for Rehabilitation of 17 Irrigation Schemes & 07 Salt Water Exclusion Schemes Request for (a) Remuneration for Supplementary Services being provided in Welioya and (b) Additional Remuneration for Delays
While we highly appreciate the confidence you and Northern Provincial Council have demonstrated in CECB by offering the aforesaid consultancy engagement; we are reluctantly compel to place in record the unforeseen constraints and related issues that are being negotiated by us day by day in delivering our services in compliance with terms and conditions of the contract. 1. Scope of Services: Under the said contract; we are entrusted to deliver the consultancy services for the rehabilitation of 17 numbers of irrigation schemes and seven numbers of SWE schemes through execution of works by local contractors under 27 contracts awarded by the Client. Further in accordance with the letter dated June 12, 2012 received from the Project Coordinator, CAREP, MoED ; we were requested to provide supplementary consultancy services for rehabilitation of 11 numbers of irrigation schemes in Welioya area as additional works. At this stage, we are providing consultancy services for 50 numbers of NCB contract packages and 44 numbers of shopping packages for the rehabilitation of 28 numbers of Irrigation schemes and seven numbers of SWE schemes instead of the afore said original scope. 2. Commencement and Completion Date: Although the commencement date of the consultancy engagement is 20 th of October 2010, considering the urgency of works we have mobilized our inputs and commenced with field survey of the Chemmadu Tank in Vavuniya district on 15 th of September 2010. The scheduled completion date of consultancy engagement was lapsed on 14th of January 2013. Having given our notice to you for the extension of engagement completion time period in terms of the contract by letter No. .. dated . and discussed in subsequent meetings, we are continuing delivery of our services without interruption

beyond the scheduled completion date complying with your instructions received from time to time aiming at project completion. 3. Inputs Incurred: In the process of delivering the services, our inputs with respect to TL, SIE, RE, WS & D, man have already exceeded the estimated quantity incorporated in the contract. Similarly cost incurred by us in providing field transport, communication, printing, etc also have exceeded the our estimated amount significantly. 4. Awarding of Contracts: In accordance with the work plan of engagement contract, the awarding of all the contracts for the rehabilitation of 17 irrigation schemes and seven SWE schemes should have been completed within time period of about six months from March 2011 to September 2011. But as recorded, contracts were awarded within the time period of about 21 months from June 2011 to March 2013, even after the lapsed of scheduled completion date of consultancy engagement. Further multiple contracts are awarded simultaneously to the same contractor in different working areas. Total of 22 contracts were awarded to five contractors having more than two contracts in hand. On the other hand, these contractors took rare interest in treating each contract separately and mobilize the required resources to site as proposed in their bids; but they utilize almost same set of resources to all contracts in hand consuming more period of time for the work completion. 5. Construction Period: It is the fact that rehabilitation works are to be executed along with issue of water for irrigation in canals for Yala and Maha paddy cultivation. In general Yala cultivation is from April/May to July/August and Maha October/November to February/March. As such, in a year only about five months of time period would be available for execution of works without interruption by irrigation water in canals. Further rehabilitation works involved in operating irrigation scheme is totally different from that of either roads or building rehabilitation works with respect to nature, characteristic, activities, working areas and beneficiary direct interaction. As such, construction time period allowed in respective contracts mainly based on the value of estimated cost without giving due consideration to above said facts and other related foreseen constraints and risks was inadequate and unrealistic. 6. Unforeseen Climatic Condition: The climatic conditions experienced in working areas in years 2011, 2012 & 2013 is totally different from that of previous years. As recorded, in year 2010 there was no rainfall in months of January & February and only scattered showers in later part of months of March & April, but we experienced adverse climatic conditions in year 2012 & 2013. It is worth to note that in year 2013 Vavunikulam tank was spilling up to end of March. 7. Strategy Proposed for Completion of Vavunikulam Downstream Works:

Once concluded that contractor would not be able to complete the works within Intended Completion Date, in early 2012 the Engineer initiated the action and subsequently proposed the alternative strategy to complete the works within the terms and conditions of the contract. Although we had several communications and discussions with related authorities, ruling was not given for the implementation of proposals. The second strategy was then proposed and submitted which was accepted for implementation in March 2013. 8. Completion of works by contractors: In accordance with the proposed work plan of engagement contract, rehabilitation works of 17 irrigation schemes and seven SWE schemes should have been completed by respective contractors by end of 2012. Works under some of the contracts were not completed up to date due to the aforesaid valid reasons and we of the strong opinion that some of the reasons are beyond the control of the respective contractors. 9. In light of the matters explained above, we sincerely seek your approval to the following remuneration for the consultancy services. a. Remuneration for Supplementary Services that are being provided during the construction stages in Welioya pursuant to Sub Clause 8.2 of the conditions of engagement. b. Additional Remuneration for Delays for the service being provided after the scheduled completion date of consultancy engagement pursuant to Sub Clause 8.3 of the conditions of engagement Assuring you of our best services.

Yours faithfully,

CENTRAL ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY BUREAU

Eng. Nihal Rupasinghe Chairman, CECB. Copy: Project Coordinator, CAREP-NP Irrigation, MoED, Colombo : for information please.