Agri Ministry flags Tepui, other contractors as delinquent

The Ministry of Agriculture has flagged Tepui Group Inc. along with over 25 other contractors as delinquent.

This was disclosed by Minister of Agriculture Zulfikar Mustapha during the consideration of the budget estimates today.

Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Ganesh Mahipaul asked whether Tepui Group Inc. owned by social media personality Mikhail Rodrigues, popularly known as the ‘Guyanese Critic’, is benefitting from other contracts from the ministry.

The question was asked against the backdrop of Tepui Group Inc. failing to complete works on the $865 million Belle Vue Pump Station project.

In response, Minister Mustapha said “Not only Tepui Group, but what we’ve done in the last quarter of 2025, we’ve written to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) and we listed approximately 30 contractors that we said that we don’t want to do business with anymore. Those are delinquent contractors from the Ministry of Agriculture.”

“And I hope that anytime those persons tender for a job at the Ministry of Agriculture, we will object to it,” Mustapha added.

Tepui Group Inc. had been awarded the Belle Vue Pump Station contract in August 2023, with a completion timeline of 18-months.

In January 2025, the Minister of Agriculture had reported to Parliament that only 10 per cent of the work on the pump station had been completed even though the company had received a substantial advance payment of some $182 million for mobilisation works.

The works are now being completed by Gaico Construction and General Services, as a subcontractor.