Insisting that the Government was on a bad legal footing and accusing the Holness administration of “selling out” the country as it sought to have China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) build the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project, Opposition Leader Mark Golding said the order should be withdrawn.
The opposition leader argued that for the order to have been valid, the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project should have been approved by Cabinet and Parliament as a national development project.
Golding said he made checks and no such approval was given by Parliament.
“The order itself, which is a signed order seeking to be affirmatively approved by this House and the Senate, doesn’t provide in it any approval of the project as a national development project,” the opposition leader argued.
Golding contended that the role of the order instead is to exempt the project from the provisions of the Public Procurement Act. The order also seeks to tie CHEC to wage rates agreed by the Joint Industrial Council and impose minimum labour quotas of 90 per cent and 50 per cent for unskilled and technical local workers, respectively.
“The order is bad on its face and should be withdrawn because it has not been approved by Parliament,” Golding charged.
Construction of the Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project is expected to begin by late 2022. Unlike other major road projects before it, taxpayers will be paying for its construction upfront.
The bypass, which involves the construction of 25 kilometres of roadway, consists of two segments.
These are the 15-kilometre Montego Bay bypass, starting from Ironshore and back around to Bogue Road, and the Long Hill bypass involving the construction of 10 kilometres of highway from Montego Bay down to Montpelier.
But Attorney General Marlene Malahoo Forte rubbished Golding’s assertions that there was a defect with the order. Quoting the Interpretation Act, she argued that orders do not come in effect until they are published in the Gazette and any date which might have been signed by a minister is inconsequential to the order being in effect.
Golding further said that there is no compelling need for the procurement rule to be waived for the project.
He suggested that the competitive bidding process be used as was done to have the East-West Highway built.
“Why has the Government skirted around ensuring a transparent procurement process since this project has been in the planning stage for a long time now? It seems far too convenient to come here for this request for a waiver of transparent procurement requirement at this eleventh hour,” Golding argued.
In brushing aside Holness’ argument that it would not be fair to CHEC, which would have done substantial design works in anticipation of leading the project, Golding said he was more concerned about being fair to the Jamaican taxpayer. The project was to be originally backed by Chinese cash.
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The long-awaited Montego Bay Perimeter Road Project now seems destined to proceed with the Government’s decision to give the nod to the Chinese Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) to do the work. The project was declared a national development project, which gives the Government — with the Parliament’s blessing — the right to preclude certain projects from the normal procurement processes. Needless to say, the decision has spiked the ire of the Opposition — which, ironically, when it formed the Government, passed the legislation that now allows any Administration to preclude projects like these from the Public Procurement Act.
Actions do have consequences, and the Government has used its large majority in the House to proceed.
Politicians will always blow hot air and mount horses of pride when it is expedient to do so. What is not expedient is to cast doubt on the urgent need for national development projects to proceed with dispatch or to use bureaucratic procedures to injure the timely execution of such projects.
The town of Montego Bay, the island’s tourist Mecca, is terribly congested. If anything, the perimeter road project will alleviate pile-up in the town and futuristically save lives once the treacherous Long Hill road is bypassed. Montegonians and other Jamaicans who frequently use that thoroughfare will not be too concerned about the fineries of governmental bureaucracy. They want to see the project done with expedition and transparency.
It was nevertheless good that the prime minister encouraged debate on the matter. This is as it should be in a democracy in which we should strive for the utmost transparency in the execution of the people’s business. In this light, I concur with the National Integrity Action, whose head, Dr Trevor Munroe, has called on the Integrity Commission to ensure just this transparency and that taxpayers’ money is well spent.
CHEC and none of the subcontractors working on the project should have any doubt that they are being scrutinised. I would expect the Integrity Commission’s boss, Greg Christie, to give vigorous oversight to the work to be done.
Another matter that must not be lost in all the debate and chatter is that, for the first time in living memory, the Government of Jamaica is pursuing a multi-billion-dollar project without borrowed funds. The project is being undertaken solely on the back of taxpayers. This says a lot about how far we have come. In the past we would have turned to external borrowing or some domestic mechanism to procure the funds. It can be said, without any contradiction, that the heavy debt load that bedevils us can be directly attributed to the large sums of money that have been borrowed by successive governments to fund large projects. We can hardly see any lasting benefit derived from much of this borrowing. It would appear that some projects vanished in thin air or lost a great deal of money to corruption, arrogance and inefficiency. But the country was left straddled with the weight of debt repayment nonetheless.
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The reluctance of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair, Mr David Patterson, to step down from that position, or end the gridlock, is putting at risk the continued employment of staff at the PPC (Public Procurement Commission) whose contracts are coming to an end. The staff cannot be on the job after the expiration of their contracts, as it is only the Commission that can authorize the renewal of those contracts. It would be illegal for anyone else to usurp this authority.
It would also be a huge waste ($ millions) of taxpayers’ money to have a PPC Secretariat staff without a functioning Commission. When the costs for rental, security, utilities and other services are added, the amount of wastage soars. The gridlock at the PAC should, therefore, not be allowed to derail the appointment and work of the PPC as well as put the jobs of the 20+ employees at risk, and undermining the foundational principles of transparency and accountability in the procurement and contracting process where billions of dollars are allocated annually.
The term of the last Public Procurement Commission that was set in motion in 2016, expired on October 27, 2019; but 2 Commissioners were each granted a one-year extension (until October 2020) in accordance with the constitution. Thus, from October 2020, there has been no oversight in the contracting process. In the circumstances, the challenge to transparency and accountability has become formidable.
The PPC, citing Article 212 AA of the Guyana constitution, indicates that its purpose “is to monitor public procurement to ensure ….fairness, equity, transparency, value for money and competition….(and) that the procedures of public procurement are executed in accordance with the Laws of Guyana.” While the PPC has no enforcement authority, it could make recommendations to Parliament for corrective measures, including the application of sanctions. Two cases involving malfeasance highlight the significance of the PPC’s role in contract administration.
In 2016 the Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson awarded the “Demerara Harbour Bridge Feasibility Study” contract in the sum of $161.5 million to an unsolicited vendor, LievenseCSO Engineering Contracting BV. The first Expressions of Interest for that feasibility study did not result in any vendor being selected. The Ministry was required to re-tender the solicitation but did not do so. Instead, it accepted the unsolicited proposal from the Dutch Company, LievenseCSO, and awarded the contract accordingly. The PPC investigated the contract process and found that it was awarded in the contravention of the Procurement Act. Minister Patterson and Rawlston Adams (of the Demerara Harbour Bridge) were recently indicted for this aberration.
Another well-known case arose in 2017 when the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) awarded a contract to ANSA McAL for $605 million on a sole-source basis for the purchase of “emergency drugs.” The PPC investigated the contract award process and found breaches in the procurement rules. However, no one was sanctioned for those breaches.
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-Singh urges bidders to make full use of site
The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board’s (NPTAB) new website and portal is now fully operational and Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh has pledged to ensure it is always updated and is appealing to bidders to maximise their use of it.
“The portal is up and I must emphasise that it is extremely important, not only because of the law, but transparency. This gives bidders and the public the opportunity to see what is happening, even as it ensures that the Procurement Act is adhered to,” Singh told Stabroek News when contacted.
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The United Kingdom commission of inquiry has asked government consultant Claude Skelton-Cline to turn over all documents related to his contracts with the government, he said on an April 27 broadcast of his talk show “Honestly Speaking.”
In protesting the request, Mr. SkeltonCline insisted that the contracts are public information, but the Beacon has been unable to obtain them in spite of multiple requests over more than two years.
During the talk show last week, the consultant read what he said was the entire text of two letters he received from Commissioner Sir Gary Hickinbottom and Secretary Steven Chandler on April 7 and April 22. As he did so, Mr. Skelton-Cline attacked the inquiry as a remnant of colonialism and “a violation of basic fundamental human democratic rights.”
The first letter, he said, requested that he provide details of any arrangement between government and “you or any company and/or business with which you are connected, for example as employee, director, shareholder, investor, owner, [or] for whom you act or have acted as a consultant advisor whether paid or unpaid.”
The letter sought “voluntary disclosure of information,” but it also stated that the commissioner “has the powers of the judge of the High Court in respect of calling for the production of documents,” he said, referencing a power under Section 10 of the COI Act.
The letter, Mr. SkeltonCline added, also stated that the commissioner’s “hope is that you will be willing to comply with the request in this letter, but if you are unwilling to comply, could you please give your reasons for noncompliance.”
More specifics
The second letter, dated April 22, requested specific details of any arrangement between the government and Mr. Skelton-Cline’s company, Grace Consultants, over the past two years, he said.
For instance, the letter requested all correspondence related to such arrangements, including tender documents and electronic correspondence such as emails, texts and WhatsApp messages, according to the consultant. It also requested copies of all documents relating to any payments government made to the company.
If he no longer retained documents, the letter requested that he confirm what happened to that material — and if it was destroyed, when it was destroyed, he said.
He went on to say that the letter also asked him to confirm the nature and content of any documents no longer available, the date of the documents, who prepared or issued them, and to whom they were sent.
Additionally, the letter requested that he confirm the nature and content of any correspondence no longer available, including the dates, the identities of participants, and the means of the correspondence.
‘Public document’
After reading the letters aloud, Mr. Skelton-Cline expressed confusion over the request. “My contract is a public document registered at the High Court,” he said, adding, “Every piece of information regarding the scope of works [and] the delivery of services for that contract has been given to the government via the Ministry of Finance and/or the Premier’s Office. … What I find curious is why would the COI be corresponding with me regarding government’s documents, a contract issued by government, when in fact all of these items are in the possession of the government. I didn’t engage the government: The government engaged me. I am a private citizen with a private company.”
The Beacon, however, has been unable to obtain a copy of any of Mr. Skelton-Cline’s contracts with the current government. This reporter requested copies of the contracts from the High Court Registry on Monday, but staff there said no such contracts could be located, and
that the only document apparently in the registry under Mr. Skelton-Cline’s name was a 2020 “release from bill of sale” from the National Bank of the Virgin Islands for a 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee.
In recent years, the Beacon also has made other unsuccessful attempts to obtain copies of Mr. Skelton-Cline’s consultancy contracts from him as well as Premier Andrew Fahie, Communications Director Arliene Penn, and Chief Information Officer Desiree Smith. None of them has responded to the requests.
This week, Mr. Skelton-Cline did not respond to multiple messages requesting an interview and requesting copies of the COI letters and his contracts. The COI also did not immediately respond to a request from the Beacon to address Mr. Skelton-Cline’s remarks.
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