On Wednesday, May 23, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) together hosted an integrity workshop in Georgetown, Guyana. This joint workshop is the first in a series of events aimed at promoting integrity in CDB and IDB development financing interventions in each institution’s respective Borrowing Member Countries.
The objective of the CDB-IDB event was to raise awareness among workshop participants of the multilateral development banks’ (MDBs) integrity frameworks and improve their capacity to manage risk in development-financed activities, including project procurement. Officials from various Government of Guyana agencies and ministries attended the workshop.
Both MDBs take a collaborative approach to dealing with integrity issues that may arise in projects they finance, and the workshop was intended to raise awareness about the role of CDB’s Office of Integrity, Compliance and Accountability (ICA) and the IDB’s Office of Institutional Integrity (OII). ICA is mandated to prevent and investigate fraud and corruption in the Bank’s activities and projects. CDB works to prevent, investigate and sanction violations of its policies and procedures, particularly those that are procurement-related.
The IDB’s Office of Institutional Integrity is an independent office of the IDB Group, which was created to investigate and prevent Prohibited Practices in IDB Group-financed activities. OII works closely with the IDB’s Country Office in Guyana to manage integrity risks in IDB-financed operations. OII is part of the IDB Group’s Sanctions System in order to address allegations of corruption and other prohibited practices in IDB Group-financed activities. The IDB Group requires that all participants in the activities it finances adhere to the highest standards of ethics and report to the IDB all suspected acts of Prohibited Practices they know of or become aware of during the procurement processes or contract implementation. As part of its outreach efforts in Guyana, OII staff met with leaders of the Guyanese business community on May 23rd.
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The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank has approved a project that aims to increase the use of technology to build greater climate resilience throughout the Region. Funded through a grant of USD1.5 million and to be executed by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) over a three-year period, the project approved on May 28 will support flight-mapping services to collect Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data for almost 10,000 square kilometres of vulnerable Caribbean coastal areas.
The grant provides resources for the preparation of an Intellectual Property Policy (IPP) and the creation of a product development and marketing strategy for the Centre, as well as the training of 38 end-users from the Bank’s Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) in the applications of LiDAR data.
“Generating quality scientific data and information products, data sharing, and ease of data access and transfer, are important aspects of building climate resilience across the Region because they support an improved understanding of climate risks and impacts,” said Daniel Best, Director, Projects Department, CDB.
“LiDAR-based mapping technology can therefore assist the Region in addressing some of the problems being experienced, due to the absence of geo-spatial data for decision-making, and improve the capacity of stakeholders to make better-informed decisions, for more effective management of natural hazard and climate risks,” he added.
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The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has released its 2017 Annual Report, highlighting the institution’s performance, initiatives and results delivered during the year.
“The Bank recorded strong growth, and exceeded targets in both total approvals and disbursements,” said President, Dr. Wm. Warren Smith. “The Bank was able to respond quickly and meaningfully to the various setbacks and the challenges that Borrowing Member Countries faced during the year. With this level of support, CDB was able to maintain its position as a leading source of long-term development financing and capacity-building in the Caribbean,” he added.
In 2017, the Bank approved capital loans and technical assistance interventions totalling USD364 million (mn), an increase of 18% compared with 2016. Disbursements to its Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs) rose by 13% to USD233 mn during the year.
Economic Review and Outlook
The Annual Report details CDB’s economic outlook and review for the Caribbean Region. The Bank reports that in 2017, on average, there was an overall uptick in economic growth of 0.5% in BMCs, led by a rebound in oil prices, and supported by buoyant tourism and construction activities. “Fiscal balances remained weak in most cases; and public sector debt continued to be worryingly high in many BMCs,” according to the review.
The Bank forecasts that the regional economy will grow by 1.8% in 2018 due to anticipated improvements in global economic growth, with risks tilted to the downside. “Mitigating these risks will require improved resilience on many levels. Macroeconomic stability, increased competitiveness, improved human development, and environmental preparedness are conditions that are necessary to improve resilience, and ensure sustainable and inclusive growth and development,” the Report notes.
Project Performance
In the newly released publication, CDB also reports on its project performance across several sectors.
- Environmental sustainability: The Bank provided Emergency Relief Grants totalling USD800,000 to Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) following the passage of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Four Immediate Response Loans with a value of USD2.8 mn were approved to assist with immediate hurricane recovery efforts in Antigua and Barbuda, and BVI. In addition, the Bank provided a grant of USD3.5 mn to the Government of Haiti to cover its annual insurance premium to CCRIF SPC.
- Renewable energy and energy efficiency: CDB continued to promote its streetlight retrofitting programme, encouraging BMCs to undertake network-wide replacement and sustainable disposal of inefficient high-pressure sodium lamps with LED lamps. In 2017, loans were approved for streetlight retrofitting in Jamaica and Suriname; and the implementation of similar projects in Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines advanced. When these projects are fully implemented, savings of at least 50% in streetlight energy consumption, system-wide, are expected.
- Economic infrastructure: Infrastructure projects under implementation during 2017 included the construction and upgrading of approximately 32 km of roads, benefitting over 130,000 people in Belize, BVI, Guyana, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. In The Bahamas, the Bank supported the installation of water supply infrastructure that improved access to water for 1,150 households. Under the United Kingdom Caribbean Infrastructure Partnership Fund, implementation advanced for a project in Antigua and Barbuda, which will construct and upgrade approximately 8.7 km of roads, benefitting approximately 65,000 people.
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The Board of Directors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has approved a loan of USD1.3 million (mn) to assist in upgrading the water sector in Guyana. The funds, provided to the Government of Guyana, will be used to provide consultancy services to develop a national water policy, as well as to provide designs and estimates for the construction of water treatment plants and the upgrade of related infrastructure.
“The Government of Guyana is currently seeking to enhance the management of its water resources, as well as increase the availability and access of water to communities. We expect that these funds will be used to provide technically viable solutions for the improvement of water supply to approximately 68,000 people who live along in the coast as well as in the hinterland regions,” said Daniel Best, Director of Projects at CDB.
In laying the groundwork for the construction of water treatment plants and the upgrade of existing infrastructure, under the Water Sector Enhancement Project, consultants will also conduct a study to determine the feasibility of using water from the Hope Canal for potable water purposes; prepare a national water policy, and develop recommendations for institutional strengthening.
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An interesting event went unnoticed this past week. It was Belize Social Investment Fund (BSIF)Sensitization Workshop held at the Best Western Belize Biltmore Plaza last Thursday. It was organized with the objective of sensitizing suppliers, contractors and service providers of available procurement opportunities under its Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and World Bank funded projects in Belize which covered water and sanitation, health and education among other areas.The presenters’ subliminal messages were clear–contracting opportunities abound in Belize or in the local parlance – opportunities deh ya!
The efforts of this executing agency in hosting this workshop is commendable however, I suspect that this valiant effort is not enough. Similar presentations from other executing agencies and international financing institutions (IFIs) are required to give hope to Belizean contractors, suppliers and service providers who are thirsty for opportunities. Should you run into these people at the local supermarket you can see the despair yet hopeful look on their faces when they tell you that it is only a certain group of people that are getting business or a bite of the pie.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) must surely be commended for hosting Belize’s first procurement fair in collaboration with the CDB which highlighted opportunities in excess of US$232 million and saw participation from a wide cross section of the local business community as well as participation from businesses overseas. But what is the root cause of the perception that only a privileged few benefits from business opportunities in Belize? Are they endowed with special tendering powers? Are the majority of eligible contractors not lucky enough? Surely, the government cannot be blamed for all the ills of society.
I would like to examine this perception from a procurement perspective and not only challenge contractors, suppliers and service providers to a heavy dose of reflection/introspection in their tendering/bidding practices, but to encourage them to increase their scope in identifying business opportunities.
In the first instance, there is a need to ensure that one is familiar with the intricate requirements of a tendering process. In order for tenders to be deemed responsive or even considered beyond initial scrutiny, quotations tendered must meet the minimum requirements, tender submission forms if applicable are required to be correctly prepared and signed, all CVs ofkey experts’ or team members, the list of equipment required to properly execute the job and the years of experience required executing similar assignments must be clearlyoutlined and included. However, that is not the end of it. Presentation is key and sections of a tender which are neatly typed and arranged section by section, is more pleasing to an evaluator’s eyes and creates a good first impression. It is imperative that the tender documents be thoroughly checked to ensure accuracy and completeness before they are promptly submitted before the deadline. Late bids/tenders are never tolerated!
With regards to identifying and understanding opportunities, it is instructive and advantageous to review project documents particularly those relating to loans signed by the government with IFIs. Once the name of the project is known, one can easily google the project name by country to locate these documents which are often times made public and provide solid information on the project at hand. It is a requirement for some IFIs that a procurement plan be published or included with these documents and, it is within this plan that contractors, suppliers and service providers can find procurement opportunities listed, including cost estimates of each opportunity. This information is extremely useful for being a baseline and can assist in arriving at a suitable tender price when the opportunity is advertised. Additionally, one can peruse the awarded contracts section within the IFI website to get an estimate of the costing of similar projects/assignments.
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