A new K27 million dining hall at the PNG University of Technology (Unitech) in Lae was opened last Friday.
Chancellor Sam Koim and Pro Chancellor Finkewe Zurenuoc officiated at the opening ceremony.
The dining hall caters for 1000 students and took four years to be completed by two different contractors.
Mr Koim reflected on some of the challenges encountered and lessons learned from the project.
“The university mess was burnt down in 2016 and it has left a scar in the history of our university, not only a physical scar, but also as an institutional and its reputation,” he said.
“I would like to acknowledge the student leadership, the university administration, council members and the university community since the incident from 2016. Since then, we’ve never had a violent unrest on campus, and the building today demonstrates a lasting reminder that we can have difference of opinion and argue at an intellectual environment, but never ever burn down a university property because it will look after you in the future.”
He added that challenges encountered during the construction stage, included outsourcing of the catering services to a private contractor and later terminating it, and the building being constructed by two different constructors because the first contractor could only build 65 per cent of the dining hall. ‘Papua New Guinean contractors need to learn to deliver contracts according to scope, design and value for money in that way it would be easy for local institutions and organizations to invest in them,” Mr Koim said.
Thumbs up for the completion of State-of-the-Art Dining Hall despite many set-backs beyond all parties control such as Forex & Inflation, etc. Terminating the outsoured Catering Contract was the wisest & economical decision University management and Council made that saw savings to cater for additional costs due to Forex & Inflation issues faced by the contractor(s).
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