IPI Chief Executive Officer Donald Browne and IPI engineer Jonathan Tsai were responding to statement of DR Safety that IPI has not paid any of its contractors.
Tsai presented checks and a record indicating that IPI has been making payments to DR Safety since July 24. He also showed a copy of the agreement between IPI and DR Safety.
Under the agreement, DR Safety services include the submission of all requirements to DPW. These include the list of engineers of record or EOR, and the certificates of each EOR.
Tsai said DPW issued a stop work order on Oct. 27 because DR Safety failed to submit the required documents to DPW.
“That is part of the contract. DR Safety was supposed to do those services for us. They were supposed to submit all those documents to DPW as part of their services to us but they did not, until just recently,” Tsai said.
DR Safety, he said, had to submit those documents to DPW right after they signed the contract with IPI in July, but it was only after the stop work order was issued that DR Safety submitted the documents.
According to Browne, if DR Safety is saying that its engineers were not paid, then “it’s their responsibility not ours.”
He said it was DR Safety that entered into employment contracts and sub-contracts with its engineers and consultants. So it is the responsibility of DR Safety to pay them, he reiterated.
“We have a lot of receivables, too, from our gaming customers, but we don’t blame them when we can’t pay our bills,” he added.
As for the report that a certain Mr. Su is making decisions for IPI, Browne said, “It is absolutely not true.”
Mr. Su, he added, is a friend of the board. “He accepts no salary, he accepts no payment,” Browne said.
Tsai said due to the problems caused by DR Safety, IPI is now forming a new team of safety consultants.
Department of Public Works acting Building Safety Officer Isagani Salazar, in a separate interview, said since the stop work order has been lifted, the construction of the IPI casino-hotel should proceed.
The EORs and their certificates as well as the contract between IPI and DR Safety have already been submitted to DPW, Salazar said.
He said whatever issues DR Safety and IPI have against each other, “that’s between them.”
