Articles

Tobago airport RFPs cancelled

The Re­quest for Pro­pos­als (RF­Ps) is­sued for the con­struc­tion of the new ANR Robin­son air­port has been can­celled.

Gov­ern­ment has or­dered that the project be re­tendered and has now tak­en re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for fi­nanc­ing the mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar air­port up­grades.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands that the RF­Ps were can­celled since last month and Gov­ern­ment man­dat­ed the Na­tion­al In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Com­pa­ny (NID­CO) to re­tender for the mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar project. It was re­vealed that on­ly one bid­der re­spond­ed to the RF­Ps—Chi­na Rail­way Con­struc­tion Cor­po­ra­tion.

Ac­cord­ing to in­for­ma­tion re­ceived by Guardian Me­dia, the new ten­der, which went out to pre-qual­i­fied com­pa­nies on Mon­day, changed from a de­sign/fi­nance/con­struct RFP and is now bro­ken in­to two sep­a­rate parts.

Last week, Guardian Me­dia sought con­fir­ma­tion from Fi­nance Min­is­ter Colm Im­bert and Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Min­is­ter Stu­art Young.

Nei­ther men re­spond­ed to What­sApp mes­sages nor text mes­sages.

On Thurs­day chair­man of NID­CO, Her­bert George con­firmed the can­cel­la­tion of the orig­i­nal RFP and ex­plained the con­di­tions of the new ten­der.

“This new ten­der is split in­to two parts,” he said.

“The first part is the main works for the new sec­tion of the air­port and the sec­ond one is for the up­grade of the ex­ist­ing fa­cil­i­ty.”

The first ten­der is turn key, which means that the se­lect­ed con­trac­tor will be re­spon­si­ble for the de­sign/con­struc­tion and com­mis­sion­ing of the new build­ing, while the sec­ond ten­der is de­sign/build.

“Both as­pects would be fund­ed by the Gov­ern­ment,” George said.

The ten­ders are open to both lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al con­trac­tors. It was re­tendered on June 11.

Gov­ern­ment had ini­tial­ly pegged com­ple­tion of the project by De­cem­ber 2020 and George said he was hop­ing to meet that dead­line.

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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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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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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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