Articles

Angostura CEO to quit as probe ends

The probe against em­bat­tled CEO of An­gos­tu­ra Genevieve Jod­han, who is ac­cused of flout­ing the com­pa­ny’s pro­cure­ment pol­i­cy in the award of sev­er­al se­cu­ri­ty con­tracts, is near­ing com­ple­tion and she is like­ly to quit as part of a set­tle­ment deal.

De­tails or the fi­nal agree­ment are still be­ing ap­proved by at­tor­neys in­volved in the mat­ter and Jod­han is ex­pect­ed to re­ceive an undis­closed sum as part of the agree­ment, re­li­able sources told Guardian Me­dia.

Jod­han, 53, who has been on ad­min­is­tra­tive leave since last Oc­to­ber, was the sub­ject of two sep­a­rate au­dits which ex­am­ined the award of con­tracts amount­ing to over one mil­lion dol­lars to MH Tac­ti­cal Re­sponse Group, New Or­der Se­cu­ri­ty Ser­vices and Cor­po­rate As­set Pro­tec­tion — all aligned to Sgt Mark Her­nan­dez, a key mem­ber of the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team, an elite unit of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice.

An­gos­tu­ra is one of the crown jew­els ac­quired by the State af­ter the 2009 bailout of the CL Fi­nan­cial Group. It is a pub­licly trad­ed com­pa­ny and mak­ers of the world-renowned An­gos­tu­ra Aro­mat­ic Bit­ters and a host of pre­mi­um rums, in­clud­ing 1919.

Ac­count­ing firm Price­Wa­ter­house­C­oop­ers was called in to in­ves­ti­gate the award of sev­er­al con­tracts in mid-2018. The com­pa­ny al­so con­duct­ed its own probe.

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Image:  Wikipedia

UDC seeks joint venture investors to increase parking spaces in downtown Kingston

THE Urban Development Corporation (UDC) is inviting local and international investors to enter into a long-term joint venture agreement with the corporation by submitting proposals to design, build, finance, operate and maintain a multi-storey parking garage in downtown Kingston.

The UDC projects that the purpose-built five-storey parking facility on Orange & Port Royal streets will accommodate 885 spaces, spanning 23,647 square metres. The building will feature special renewable technology and will also make use of a grey water recycling programme and boast an automated entry/exit system. Investors are expected to demonstrate proven experience in the real estate and/or infrastructure sector and can access the Request for Proposals (RFP) document at the offices of the UDC, at 12 Ocean Boulevard, downtown Kingston, upon payment of a non-refundable fee of US$1,500.00 by cash or manager’s cheque. Final date to purchase bidding document will be April 26.

The UDC said further information will be available in an electronic data room for the bidders.

“Failure to directly purchase the RFP Document from the procuring entity will result in ineligibility/ non-responsiveness of that bidder from participating in the procurement process. Prospective proponents may seek and receive clarification of any part of this RFP at any time on or before May 10.

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Image:  Bilderandi (Pixabay)

Procurement commission asks for report on alleged bid tampering at national tender board

Concerned about reports of alleged bid tampering at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB), the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) has asked the agency for a report.

“The PPC is also concerned about the incident that allegedly took place at NPTAB and, as a first action, we have asked for an official report on the matter,” Chairperson of the PPC Carol Corbin told Stabroek News when contacted.

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Image:  theilr (flickr)

Funds secured for two geothermal turbines says Vince Henderson

Senior Advisor to the Dominica Geothermal Development Company (DGDC), His Excellency Dr. Vince Henderson has said that the financing package for Dominica’s Geothermal Program has been secured.

The financing package, which includes $22 million in grants, was approved by the World Bank.

“On March 15th the executive board of the World Bank approved financing for geothermal projects which includes US$17.2 million of concessionary loan at 0.75 percent with a grace period of 10 years and a repayment of 25 years,” Henderson said.

He continued, “Also we are able to receive the approval of US$22 million in grant funding, a package of US$10 million from the UK [United Kingdom] and another $10 million from the Clean Technology Fund and $2 million from SIDS DOCK and these are all in US dollars”

Henderson said that the technical plan for the development of the project has also been secured, “and we are now awaiting the final approval of the tender documents so that we can go to market to invite tenders for an EPC contract, which is Engineering Procurement and Construction contract, [for] the entire development of the plant.”

He said that will lead to the construction of two turbines of 3.5 megawatts each in the Laudat area in order to generate power to sell to DOMLEC.

Henderson went on to say that the DGDC late last year finalized negotiations with DOMLEC on the power purchase agreement.

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Image:  hbieser (Pixabay)

War of words over gang contracts rages

Rowley fires back at Roodal

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley says Op­po­si­tion MP Dr Roodal Mooni­lal is the on­ly known min­is­ter who was pho­tographed while pro­mot­ing gang busi­ness.

In a re­lease yes­ter­day, Row­ley fired back at Mooni­lal, who ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of award­ing lu­cra­tive con­tracts to gang lead­ers, not­ing this in turn was un­der­min­ing the po­lice’s war against crim­i­nal gangs.

On Sun­day, Mooni­lal, the MP for Oropouche East, called on Row­ley to ter­mi­nate con­tracts with the gang lead­ers and take ac­tion against any min­is­ter who gave such con­tracts. He said Row­ley con­tin­ued to har­bour se­nior Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ters with known links to peo­ple be­fore the courts and oth­er al­leg­ed gang lead­ers.

Re­spond­ing to Mooni­lal, Row­ley said the Gov­ern­ment has been and con­tin­ues to fight crim­i­nal con­duct at every lev­el and will con­tin­ue to sup­port law en­force­ment in all their law­ful ef­forts to rid the coun­try of this scourge in all its forms.

“In re­sponse to the scan­dalous be­hav­iour of the UNC, a par­ty that has yet again been caught re­cruit­ing and pro­mot­ing crim­i­nals in the po­lit­i­cal process, Dr Roodal Mooni­lal ac­cus­es the Gov­ern­ment of award­ing lu­cra­tive con­tracts to un­savoury char­ac­ters.

“This com­ing from Dr Mooni­lal is laugh­ably hyp­o­crit­i­cal, since he is the on­ly known min­is­ter of any gov­ern­ment who used tax­pay­ers’ dol­lars to pay a pho­tog­ra­ph­er to fol­low him around to pho­to­graph and pro­mote him in these ac­tiv­i­ties and cur­rent­ly is the on­ly pho­to we have of any min­is­ter pro­mot­ing that for which he now says is an ac­tion which un­der­mines the ef­fort of the po­lice. What an epiphany!”

In 2013, Mooni­lal, then hous­ing and ur­ban de­vel­op­ment min­is­ter, was pho­tographed when shak­ing the hands of Ken­neth “Span­ish” Ro­driguez dur­ing a vis­it to the site of the Dun­can Street Po­lice Post, then still un­der con­struc­tion. On Mon­day, Ro­driguez, dubbed a com­mu­ni­ty leader, along with An­cel “Chemist” Vil­lafana, ap­peared be­fore Se­nior Mag­is­trate Cher­ril-Anne An­toine in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates’ Court charged with mar­i­jua­na pos­ses­sion. They were picked up dur­ing the po­lice’s an­ti-gang op­er­a­tion last week.

In his re­sponse yes­ter­day, Row­ley said con­tracts are not award­ed by any min­is­ters in his Gov­ern­ment. He said that prac­tice was a fea­ture of the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship and was a ma­jor stim­u­lus to the ram­pant cor­rup­tion that was the hall­mark of their 2010-2015 tenure. Dur­ing this pe­ri­od, the PM said, min­is­ters even col­lect­ed the cheque pay­ments owed to con­trac­tors, who then had to bar­gain for the re­lease of such funds.

“Dr Mooni­lal more than any­one else knows that this Gov­ern­ment knows that. He al­so speaks self-right­eous­ly about the trou­ble­some is­sue of pet­ty crim­i­nals get­ting Gov­ern­ment con­tracts, but is ab­solute­ly silent on the pres­ence of crim­i­nals on the UNC po­lit­i­cal plat­form and in the Par­lia­ment.”

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Image:  richdubose0 (Pexels)