Guyana
Attorney Pauline Chase was on Friday sworn in before President Irfaan Ali as the fifth member of the Public Procurement Commission (PPC), which has now been fully reconstituted.
The four other members of the Com-mission — Joel Bhagwandin, Rajnarine Singh, Diana Rajkumar and Berkeley Wickham — were sworn in on July 1, 2022.
Ali, in brief remarks at the swearing in ceremony at State House yesterday, described Chase, who is the current president of the Guyana Bar Association, as reliable, efficient, of great integrity, transparent and dignified. The president noted that he was looking forward to the dynamic and analytical thinking that Chase would bring to the body.
The commission will function for three years. The chairman and deputy chairman for the commission will be elected by the commissioners at their first meeting. During the swearing in of the four Commissioners on July 1, Ali reminded them that their work is one that requires collective effort and constructive thinking. He said he was confident that their combined skillset will serve the needs of the Commission.
There has been no PPC since October of 2020 and billions of dollars’ in public works contracts have been awarded in the intervening period. The Constitution provides that, “Subject to paragraph (2), members of the Commission shall be appointed for three years and shall be eligible for re-appointment, for one other term of office, not earlier than three years after the end of their first term. (2) Of those members first appointed, two shall hold office for four years.”
The first PPC was established in October 2016, which was more than 13 years after the Constitution was amended to cater for the procurement oversight body. The first members were Carol Corbin, Sukrishnalall Pasha, Emily Dodson, Ivor English and former Minister of Labour Nanda Kishore Gopaul. Corbin, a former project management professional and accountant with decades of experience working at the CARICOM Secretariat, was elected Chairperson of the Commission.
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Cayman Islands
Plans for a new utility-scale solar plant are moving forward as regulators seek to kickstart Cayman’s transition away from fossil fuels.
Regulator OfReg says it is not waiting for government to produce the legislation and policy framework required to support Premier Wayne Panton’s recently-announced intention to co-own renewable power plants.
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Trinidad and Tobago
If the Government would stop procrastinating and fully operationalise the Office of the Procurement Regulator, there would be independent oversight of the tender process for all these special-purpose companies spending public money. This includes UdeCOTT with its dubious Calder Hart history.
As it stands, the public is still waiting on the attorney general to take a Note to Cabinet to have the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Regulations take lawful effect. The AG would say he is waiting on the finance minister to allocate funds to the SPEs for resourcing procurement officers. Minister Imbert, however, now tells the public he is waiting on the AG. The prime minister remains complicity silent. So, the emperors continue to fiddle while Rome burns, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill.
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Trinidad and Tobago
Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal believes a technical glitch which caused the Urban Development Corporation (UDECOTT) e-tender platform to introduce a third bidder on the Port-of-Spain General Hospital Central Block project, days after the bidding was closed, should be immediately investigated, as the matter points to bid-rigging and improper conduct of procurement.
Speaking at a United National Congress media conference at the Office of the Opposition Leader in Port-of-Spain yesterday, Moonilal made the comment as he referred to a Sunday Guardian article headlined “Companies upset after ‘technical glitch’ introduced a third bidder for UDECOTT hospital contract.”
The article reported that State companies UDECOTT and the Telecommunications Services of T&T (TSTT) are defending a “technical glitch” that caused UDECOTT’s e-Tender platform to introduce a third bidder on the project days after the bidding was closed.
The article reported that at the close of bidding on May 20, two bidders and their respective prices were listed as successfully uploaded on the e-tender platform, which is managed by UDECOTT but technologically supported by TSTT.
However, after the bids were in and the tender was officially closed, two companies — Yorke Structures and Steel Structures — were the only companies listed as successful and both were told to prepare for a presentation of their methodology the coming Monday. After both presentations, they were only then informed that a third company was also in the mix and would be presenting the same day.
Expressing his disgust at this new development, Moonilal yesterday said, “So the first two which you opened and you saw…you would have seen the amount and data for two bidders …and the third bidder the documents came in late…that company would have already known the contents of the first two bids. Even the third bidder hypothetically, I cast no aspersions, could have had information on the first two bids. But they are saying that what happened, they really put it on time, but it did not come in on time because there was a glitch.”
Moonilal said this incident requires “a full inquiry and investigation because there is now the issue that the third bidder appears to be the successful bidder.”
“So, the glitch, whatever it was, didn’t make no difference in that sense. But this speaks to a very serious matter. This speaks of issues of bid-rigging. This speaks of issues of improper conduct of procurement,” he said.
The Opposition MP said the only right-thinking thing to do is to have a fresh tendering process. He said the project has taken a new twist and seemed to be surrounded by blight, mismanagement and corruption, “if it is a glitch occurred and a third bidder came in after the time has gone but apparently sent it in before the time but could not upload.”
Moonilal said eventually, these issues will form a burden on the back of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and the Government “and hopefully, with the help of God and the people, we will remove this Government.”
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Trinidad and Tobago
The issues that have arisen in relation to the tendering system of the Urban Development Corporation of Trinidad and Tobago (Udecott) highlight the sensitive nature of public procurement and the need for all stakeholders to feel confident in whatever systems are adopted.
On Sunday, Oropouche East MP Dr Roodal Moonilal called on Udecott to quash the bidding process for the Port of Spain General Hospital’s central block. He cited reports that while two contractors had submitted bids through an e-tender platform, a third contractor was allowed into the process seemingly after the fact. He cast no aspersions on any party but placed emphasis on the implications of a glitch in the system.
The next day, Udecott stated there was an explanation for the discrepancy. It said after it opened the “e-tender box” on May 20, it made checks of server logs which showed three, not two, receipts were issued.
“Udecott immediately contacted the owner and manager of the e-tender software, the Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), to explain this discrepancy,” the company said. TSTT said the issue was caused by “a temporary disruption in internet connectivity” on the vendor’s end with its service provider.
While Udecott alerted all three companies as to the situation, none of this could have been of comfort to any.
This is more so given that this is a small society in which fears of collusion are stoked by a relatively poor history of legislative oversight. Public procurement laws, when they do get passed, remain stymied through only partial or tokenistic implementation.
Udecott assures there were no amendments to any of the bids and feels its procurement process is consistent with good governance.
But the company cannot be satisfied that it had to take the unusual steps which it took to address the discrepancy or the fact that the discrepancy arose in the first place.
This is especially so given that this $1.1 billion project is already a controversial one with lingering questions over cost price inflation, the role of consultants and the departure of the initial contractor.
No company can have any confidence in online systems that appear susceptible to such glitches or, worse, vulnerable to interference. Such weaknesses can only serve to increase suspicion and, rather unfairly, reduce the credibility of the professionals administering these systems.
Udecott has stated no changes to any of the bids were made. But that is not the full extent of the matter.
Another potential issue is the degree of interaction between Udecott and TSTT in a situation in which contractors may fear there is a perceived risk – however unfounded – of company officials skewering the system in a particular way.
This is not to cast any aspersions on any party but to point to the ways in which even the smallest of errors can open the door to many more questions.
The irony is Udecott might have been better off going the old-fashioned way of having a box in its lobby. Until the e-tender system is buttressed, it may well be advised to revert to that methodology for future bids.
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