Cayman Islands
(CNS): Talks are continuing between the Cayman Islands Government and Dart over the failed dump deal, and it could be some time before the ministry is in a position to begin a new procurement process to find a suitable private sector entity to solve Cayman’s garbage crisis. The CIG has already wasted almost $16.5 million during the ReGen negotiations on consultants, insurance and project management.
However, Sustainability Minister Kathy Ebanks-Wilks told CNS that intense talks over the agreement are ongoing, even though she announced in July that the government was withdrawing from it.
At this stage, the sustainability ministry is expected to retain the waste-management problem in its portfolio once the government has cleared the legal, financial and other hurdles to extricate itself from what the minister and her predecessor, Wayne Panton, have both said was a bad deal. Given that ministry’s experience, it will take on the new procurement exercise, which is now unlikely to start before parliament is prorogued ahead of the 2025 General Election.
How much more the failed $1 billion deal will cost the public purse remains to be seen. However, according to the ministry’s response to a freedom of information request, $10 million alone had been spent on legal fees by the time the talks collapsed. Other costs associated with the project include the capping and remediation of a large part of the original landfill, which benefitted Dart as the surrounding land owner.
In addition, since the government began the original procurement exercise around seven years ago, there have been a number of land deals associated with the project. There were also general costs relating to the preparation of the project, which led to the Dart-led consortium securing the bid to build a new waste management and recycling centre, including the waste-to-energy plant, in 2017.
During a parliamentary meeting in July, Ebanks-Wilks finally confirmed that the marathon talks over this deal had collapsed as the proposed costs were too high. The UPM government, like PACT before it, said when it took over the negotiations that although the PPM-led administration signed an agreement in March 2021, just weeks before the election, the deal was far from complete and many elements of the project had not been settled.
After a further three years of negotiations between PACT/UPM and Dart, Sustainability Minister Katherine Ebanks-Wilks announced last month that the CIG had pulled the plug on the project, which she said was “untenable and unaffordable”.
“We need to find a more affordable option for the future,” Ebanks-Wilks said at the time as she warned the cost of the project could put CIG at risk of breaching the Framework for Fiscal Responsibility and losing control of the public finances to the UK. “This decision by Cabinet was not taken lightly,” she said.
Speaking to CNS on Thursday, Ebanks-Wilks said the government remained committed to finding a solution and would move towards the procurement process as soon as the talks to end the deal were over.
Since the announcement, a damning report by the Office of the Auditor General about the state of the deal as of early 2022 was leaked. The OAG had found that the negotiations between Dart and the government started badly and got progressively worse, even before the PPM-led administration signed a more than CI$1 billion preliminary deal with the islands’ wealthiest landowner.
At almost every turn officials made mistakes or failed to make the necessary reviews, calculations and assessments to protect the public purse.
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Caribbean
The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB, the Bank) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have signed a landmark Agreement to enhance the effectiveness of project procurement processes. This Agreement, which applies to joint co-financed projects, is designed to simplify procurement procedures, reduce transaction costs, and improve project planning and execution across the Caribbean.
The Procurement Framework Agreement builds on the longstanding partnership between CDB and IFAD. It establishes a collaborative structure where both institutions will mutually rely on each other’s procurement policies in jointly funded projects. This innovative approach addresses the complexities arising from varying procurement frameworks of international institutions, which often result in inefficiencies during project implementation. By recognising that the two organisations share core procurement principles of economy, efficiency, transparency, fairness, and accountability, the Agreement allows for mutual reliance on their respective project procurement frameworks and establishes effective mechanisms for cooperation. This is expected to greatly facilitate a better division of labour between the two partners, along with more consistent and timely project procurement implementation.
Speaking at the ceremonial signing, Therese Turner-Jones, CDB’s Acting Vice President, Operations, remarked, “This agreement is an important step in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of how we implement co-financed projects. By enabling the adoption of streamlined procurement arrangements in joint co-financed projects, we are reducing the burden on beneficiaries, enabling faster project execution, and ultimately delivering better development outcomes for the Caribbean region.”
Donal Brown, Associate Vice-President of IFAD’s Programme Management Department, stated, “The mutual reliance established by this agreement is a testament to the strong partnership between IFAD and CDB. Our collaboration will not only streamline processes but also ensure that agricultural and rural development projects in the Caribbean are implemented with the highest standards of efficiency and accountability.”
The new Procurement Framework Agreement will significantly promote future collaboration between the two institutions and enhance their ability to co-finance development projects in the agriculture and rural development sectors. This partnership is poised to bring about greater coherence, development impact, and improved service delivery across the Caribbean. Caribbean.
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Trinidad and Tobago
PUBLIC bodies that have breached the laws in the Procurement Act should be charged, past president of the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) Afra Raymond has said.
Raymond made the comment on Monday while speaking at part two of the Caribbean Corporate Governance Institute (CCGI) Virtual Procurement Series.
His statement came on the heels of the first report of the Office of the Procurement Regulator (OPR) which was laid in Parliament last week.
The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, 2023 became law last year.
The report found more than 60 entities in breach of the law, Procurement Regulator Beverly Khan stated.
Apart from Raymond, managing director of Raymond and Pierre, the virtual series which focused on the implications of the procurement law, included attorney Kelvin Ramkissoon, JCCI president Fazir Khan, and manager of Contracts and Procurement National Gas Company (NGC) Keith London.
Raymond commended the OPR for its work in producing its first comprehensive report, but underscored that more needs to done. He said it is critical to level charges against those found in breach of the law.
“I was staggered to see that you have organisations like UDeCOTT (Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago), HDC (Housing Development Corporation), NIDCO (National Infrastructure Development Company), with apparent breaches in terms of their reporting. These are mainline organisations that have huge budgets running into the billions of dollars.
“These are not small-time organisations. We have the Tobago House of Assembly (THA). From what I can glean from the report, there is a gap in its compliance, a serious gap in its compliance with the provision of the act.”
He added that entities such at the North West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) also had gaps.
“We have the Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, we had Ministry of National Security, it was mentioned in the TV clip and then we have Tourism, Culture and Arts also having major gaps,” said Raymond.
He said the Procurement Regulator stated that “there were $5 billion worth of contracts awarded in the period under examination in an uncompetitive manner.”
“What is happening is that we have a challenge for the OPR; there is a challenge for how it has to work.”
Raymond said the question now is what should be done with these defects. “We established this body and we created this law to bring some order to a very disorderly part of our society, the challenge for the OPR staff is what do you do?”
Raymond recommended that in some of those organisations that are in breach, “charges need to be drawn up and made against them. Let us start with the simple ones.
“We already have a DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions)—and this is not me being personal, this is facts—that have tremendous difficulty in handling complex fraud and complex cases …that whole question of white-collar crime befuddles a lot us. So, the whole of CLICO (debacle) took place, the report was published in Parliament …. eight years ago, and the DPP still studying the report.”
He questioned where the country is at where this matter is concerned.
Raymond believes the OPR must start with simple consequences to show its level of seriousness to those in breach.
Charge those who failed to file
For instance, he said, entities that did not file the name of their procurement officer, “the people who didn’t give their quarterly report, they need to be brought up on charges and those charges need to start.
“The OPR needs to start doing the second part of its work. We do the training, the report is finished and now that we have these findings, we need to advance to the next stage.”
Focusing on the actual Act, Raymond pointed out that it includes “some tremendous strengths” adding that the Act was amended by the politicians and reduced in scope.
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Guyana
The government is keen on empowering contractors needed to execute its ambitious developmental drive but amid concerns over the capability of at least one new company, Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo says a rigid evaluation criteria should be in place.
“… Clearly, we have to ensure that there is no arbitrariness in the application of evaluation criteria and if you know that the market doesn’t have enough bidders… you have to craft the evaluation criteria in a manner that would allow you to stick rigidly with it,” the Vice President said on Thursday.
He was responding to questions raised about the contract awarded to the Tepui Group for the construction of a pump station at Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara during his weekly press conference.
Already, the government welcomed the Public Procurement Commission’s (PPC) review of the contract and said it remains committed to accountability and transparency in public spending even as it makes a deliberate effort to help build local capacity.
Though acknowledging the situation with the Belle Vue project, the Vice President pointed out that projects executed by established, experienced contractors are also delayed because of the heavy workload now.
So he believes that rigid criteria could help to curtail delays and keep contractors, particularly new ones, in check.
Recently, Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh sought to explain to the public that the government is still keen on developing more local contractors to help meet the “tremendous demand” for contracted services locally.
According to him, the government’s accelerated development drive can quickly exhaust the long standing contractors.
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Guyana
The Public Procurement Commission (PPC) last December rejected a complaint by a bidder over the award of a project for the extension of the Fort Wellington Secondary School but the procuring entity, the Ministry of Local Government never provided any of the requested information for the investigation.
Bickram Motiram trading as Motiram Construction wrote a letter of complaint dated September 1, 2003 which was received by the PPC on September 6, 2003.
According to the PPC’s Summary of Findings dated December 29, 2023, Motiram alleged that at the tender opening, his bid was the lowest and that he had fulfilled all administrative requirements. He further submitted that he was “a well rounded and seasoned contractor with vast experience and resources which were all demonstrated and attached with [his] bid document.”
Motiram further acknowledged in the letter that he was cognizant that the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) does not always award the lowest bidder but expressed frustration that his bid was overlooked for a higher bid and requested the reasons for this.
The commission said it reviewed the tender proceedings to determine whether there was any irregularity in the award of the tender.
In accordance with Article 212DD of the constitution, the commission on September 13, 2023, requested that the NPTAB submit to the commission within five days –
i. a copy of the record of the tender proceedings, including the Evaluation Report;
ii. confirmation as to whether the tender was awarded and if so, the date of publication on NPTAB’s website in accordance with S. 11 of the Procure-ment Act. If awarded but not published, the reason for not so doing;
iii. whether a copy of the Evaluation Report had been sent to the procuring entity for compliance with S. 39(3) of the Procurement Act, Cap. 73:05.
The Ministry of Local Government & Regional Development was similarly asked to submit-
i. a copy of the tender proceedings and Evaluation Report. If not in the possession of the procuring entity, why not.
ii. whether the procuring entity complied with S. 39(3) of the Pro-curement Act, Cap. 73:05, and it not, why not;
iii. confirmation as to whether the tender has been awarded;
iv. if the tender has been awarded, confirmation as to whether the contract had been entered into and if so, a copy thereof;
v. if the contract had been entered into, confirmation of whether the tender award decision was published on NPTAB’s website prior to entry into the contract;
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