The prime minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Honourable Dr. Timothy Harris, has indicated that all tender procedures have been followed regarding the construction of the new Basseterre High School (BHS), after some posed questions as to why overseas contractors were offered the job.
Questioned at his last press conference regarding the tender process in relation to the BHS, Harris noted that all the contracts for capital projects that have been awarded were subjected to all the rules related to procurement that have been followed by his administration and will always be followed.
“We have always, for the record, have tendering and invited more than one person,” he said. “Indeed, the financial secretary and the deputy financial secretary would say we often ask for at least three tenders, particularly if the capital project is of any magnitude, and this is in the DNA of the government, that wherever public monies are to be spent, we are assured that we are getting value for money and where [people] are given contracts and they fail to perform those contracts would be aborted, that is the norm.”
He further indicated that a committee of qualified individuals from both the private and public sector was established and is responsible for making recommendations as to who will be awarded government contracts.
“In fact, we have a committee that basically makes recommendations in relation to any work assignment,” he added. “A committee comprising [people] from the private sector, from public works, from the Office of the Prime Minister under whose remit that that matter basically falls, and they relate to the relevant people in the Ministry of Finance. Everything is [an] open book.”
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The Pan American Health Organisaton/ World Health Organisation has dispatched an expert to audit the procurement process at the Ministry of Public Health and the state-run Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), the ministry announced Tuesday.
“I found that it (the procurement process) was a bigger issue than I thought” Lawrence said during Tuesday’s early-morning meeting.
“I didn’t think it was as bad as I found it (but) this is the beginning of the process” of regularising operations in the wider health sector, Lawrence said.
Professor Jaime Espin Balbino of the Andalusian School of Public Health, Regional Ministry of Health is spearheading the forensic exercise which will target the operations of the MOPH and the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Health Minister, Volda Lawrence (MP) said Tuesday during a meeting with officials of those entities.
The Health Ministry said PAHO/WHO is funding the cost of the audit.
Lawrence reportedly said the the audit into how things are currently done and the specific changes that will be implemented will provide the roadmap for the future to remove the existing “vast deficiencies in knowledge and manpower.”
The forensic audit comes on the heels of public complaints into the procurement process, the quality of drugs, and allegations of shortage of drugs, medical supplies and pharmaceuticals in the government-run sector. The announcement of the audit comes weeks after the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) had announced a probe into government’s “emergency” purchase of more than GYD$600 million in drugs without passing through the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board.
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The newly implemented drug procurement system requires successful suppliers to register all drugs with the Government Analyst Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD). This is to ensure that quality drugs and medical supplies are acquired through the procurement system.
This was highlighted during a presentation by Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Public Health on the Global Health Supply Chain Management, Cecil Jacks. Jacks was at the time speaking at the recently concluded, Staff training and Capacity Building exercise for Regional Health Officers(RHOs) and Programme Heads of the Ministry of Public Health at the Lake Mainstay Resort.
It has been recognised that suppliers who have won bids for the supply of drugs did not register imported items with the GA-FDD. This has resulted in the inefficiency of prescribed drugs to patients. Jacks pointed out that this problem is simply because the evaluation aspect of the tendering process is not being effectively implemented.
“There is a bad practice in Guyana where when the evaluation committee is nominated and selected by NPTAB (National Procurement and Tender Administration Board) they don’t do their jobs, they depend on the procurement assistants from MMU (Materials Management Unit) to do the evaluation and then just send them the report and they sign off, we learnt that. That is a lesson we learnt, so the new trend now is to get these evaluators lock them in a room for like a week or two, get the evaluation out of the way and let us proceed,” Jacks was quoted as saying in a statement issued by government’s Department of Public Information (DPI).
He also said that the Ministry of Public Health did not have a proficient procurement unit. This affected the way regional procurement was handled through the ministry. “For the very first time in its history we have recruited an entire procurement unit so we have literally built a procurement unit from scratch.”
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HEADS must roll over the failed leasing of a passenger ferry for the domestic seabridge, said Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan, replying to reporters’ queries at a function at the Caroni Licensing Office yesterday.
Newsday asked Sinanan if the term “crookedness” adopted by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, at a press conference after a meeting with Tobago stakeholders on Monday, was too strong.
At the launch yesterday of the Heavy-T inspection bay at the Frederick Settlement, Caroni, licensing office, Sinanan declined weighing in on the comment saying, “The prime minister will use whatever language he thinks is appropriate. All I can say is that I welcome the investigation and I think the population needs to know exactly what went on.” Asked whether Rowley’s view, that there was crookedness involved in the procurement process for the Ocean Flower II, was an indictment on him (Sinanan) as the line minister, he said, “I don’t think so. I think the report that has been asked for will indicate exactly where– if you want to use the word–the ‘crookedness’ has taken place.
Once the facts show that there was crookedness, I think heads should roll.
“And if there is an indictment on the minister, then I think the minister’s head should roll. If it is on the board, then the board should roll. And if it is at the management, then the management needs to be accountable.
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Former transport minister Devant Maharaj is calling on the Integrity Commission to investigate the procurement process by the Port Authority of Trinidad and Tobago (PATT) for the inter-island ferry services between Trinidad and Tobago.
Speaking to the Express, Maharaj said the entire procurement process of the Cabo Star and the Ocean Flower 2 is “shrouded in secrecy and mystery, and the Port Authority has failed in providing the population with reasonably plausible explanations. Given the fact that this contract is over $100 million for a year, the commission must see the national importance of it”.
In a letter to the commission’s chairman, Justice Zainool Hosein, Maharaj said after having reviewed the information surrounding the provision of the ferry services for both the cargo and passenger vessels (the Cabo Star and the Ocean Flower 2), the commission must now use its investigative powers regarding the acquisition of the vessels.
Maharaj is claiming there were unsolicited proposals made by Bridgeman Services LP to the Port Authority regarding the lease of the vessels for the inter-ferry service, and questioned why the procurement guidelines of the Central Tenders Board were not followed as was done with the Super-Fast Galicia.
The Cabo Star and the Ocean Flower 2 were both chartered by Bridgeman Trinidad Services LP.
“June 26, four days before the PATT announced it had contracted the services of Bridgeman Trinidad Services LP, Bridgeman Trinidad Services LP purchased the Ocean Flower 2 from its previous owner, DAE Express Shipping Company Ltd. Essentially this meant to any reasonable person that Bridgeman sent an unsolicited proposal to the PATT to consider without having a vessel in its fleet.
“June 30, Minister of Works and Transport Rohan Sinanan and Port Authority chairman Alison Lewis, at a press conference at the Ministry of Works on Richmond Street, stated that Government has given the Port Authority of T&T (PATT) approval to lease two vessels, Cabo Star, and the passenger boat, Ocean Flower, to service the sea bridge between Trinidad and Tobago. The contract was awarded by the PATT via an unsolicited proposal from Bridgeman Services LP. Why did the PATT not adhere to the procurement guidelines of the Central Tenders Board as was done with the Super-Fast Galicia?” the letter stated.
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