Without the EOR, IPI will be in violation of the building code again, which means the Department of Public Works will have to issue another stop work order.
Reacting to IPI engineer Jonathan Tsai’s claim that the casino investor has paid DR Safety for the services agreed in their contract, DR Safety owner David Rillera Jr. said the $130,000 that IPI paid DR Safety was for the “backlog invoice they didn’t pay since [January] 2020.”
Tsai on Monday said DR Safety was supposed to submit all the required documents to DPW as part of its services to IPI.
But Rillera said, “Ever since we started the special inspectors and EOR inspection, we haven’t gotten paid and IPI knows that as they promised to pay us once the job site was open again.”
He said the IPI resident director for construction, Jing Zhou, who has “really been a great help,” is a witness, through videoconference, along with IPI senior vice president for Construction Eric Poon and IPI engineer Jonathan Tsai, “who video chatted with us, [and told us] that if we get the job site open, the chair lady has the money in hand.”
Rillera said his EORs are also witnesses to that conversation.
He said a certain Mr. Su, “who appeared to be making all the decisions, but claimed he was just a friend,” ordered to pay half of the invoices owed by IPI.
IPI chief executive officer Donald Browne told Variety in an interview that Mr. Su is just “a friend of the board.” But Rillera said Mr. Su is “a key player in this IPI project.”
Rillera said IPI is hiring one of his former employees to perform safety management services.
The former employee, he said, “took all the other DR Safety workers to his new company.” These workers told Rillera that “Mr. Su will pay them cash.”
He said the new safety team that will serve as the new EOR for IPI is from a realty company and not a construction firm.
On Tuesday morning, DPW was informed of DR Safety’s decision to stop its work with IPI.
In his formal notice today, Wednesday, Rillera informed IPI that DR Safety Consultant will stop working at the job site “due to nonpayment of construction safety services rendered.”
He also told IPI that “due to continuous delays on payment from you, our client, we have no choice but to furlough our employees (site safety health officers) until further notice.”
Rillera reminded IPI that as provided in the accident prevention plan on record filed with the Department of Public Works and the Commonwealth Casino Commission, “if there is no safety officer on site, IPI must respond to a stop work order.”
He also noted that Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules require safety personnel on the job site at all times.
“You are not authorized to just appoint anyone else as safety [consultant] without informing DPW,” he told IPI.
“Effective today, [Dec. 2,] we are terminating our special inspectors (SI) and engineers of record (EOR) agreement,” Rillera said.
“Please note that we will also be advising DPW and all other parties of our decision to stop work on this project,” he added.
DPW’s stop work order due to violations of the CNMI building code pertaining to lack of EOR and special inspectors was lifted on Nov. 25 after DR Safety submitted a list of EOR and other required documents to DPW.
Rillera said they submitted those documents to DPW after IPI paid DR $130,000.
About three weeks after DPW issued a stop work order on Oct. 27, IPI chief executive officer Donald Browne wrote Rillera a letter, saying that “IPI will not issue any payment” until DR Safety settled the EOR certification approval process with DPW.
Who is Mr. Su?
According to Rillera, Mr. Su is funding IPI and making all the decisions.
He said Mr. Su, through a company named “PIPM,” is paying people but not DR Safety.
In the past, he said DR Safety received checks from PIPM through Mr. Su, “and we have documents also for that.”
“They say that IPI paid, but in reality the money was coming from PIPM not IPI. Jonathan [Tsai] has those documents…. Who paid us? PIPM. Evidence shows,” Rillera said.
“Since there are no safety [inspectors] on the job site, it has to stop per OSHA regulations. OSHA already has been notified and will soon do an investigation,” he added.
DR Safety Consultant, LLC has been doing work for IPI for almost four years and has not had any problem until now, he said.
“We have other projects on island and our credentials are all good. We have done so many favors for IPI and enough is enough,” Rillera said, adding that his company only hires locals and helps people who need work since the pandemic shut down the local tourism industry.
“How can an outsider come in and do this to our local people?” he asked.
Variety was unable to get a comment from IPI.
