Guyana
The National Assembly Wednesday night unanimously approved the five persons who would be serving on the Public Procurement Commission (PPC)
Those approved by the bipartisan Public Accounts Committee as “”suitable candidates” to sit on the PPC are Attorney-at-Law Pauline Chase, Economist Joel Bhagwandin, Rajnarain Singh, Berkeley Wickham and Diana Rajcumar. The nominees secured at least two-thirds support from members of the National Assembly in keeping with Guyana’s Constitution.
Mr. Wickham and Ms Rajcumar have been nominated by the opposition A Partnership for National Unity+Alliance For Change.
PAC Chairman, Jermaine Figueira thanked the inaugural PPC- Carol Corbin, Dr Nankishore Gopaul, Sukrishnalall Pasha, Ivor English and Emily Dodson- and hoped that they would be “given their rightly deserved dues” for their work in setting up the PPC.
Government lawmaker and PAC Member, Gail Teixeira noted that the People’s Progressive Party Civic-led administration had always proposed that three of the five PPC members represent government and two from the opposition but until now it had been supported. “I believe that in the process that we went through, I think we have found some very good Guyanese to be able to take on this responsibility and continue the work of the former PPC,” she said.
She highlighted that the PPC largely represented a “younger generation” after having undergone police background checks.
Sixty members voted in favour of the motion.
The PPC is responsible for monitoring and reviewing the functioning of all public procurement systems to ensure that they are in accordance with law and such policy guidelines as may be determined by the National Assembly.
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Dominica
The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) is providing more than EC$200 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) in grant and loan funding to Dominica for major infrastructural work on the island.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said Dominica will receive EC$132.6 million including a grant of US$32.9 million from Britain for the rehabilitation of the Loubiere to Grand Bay Road network.
“It is a major investment and certainly it is topping the EC$127 million that we are currently spending on the east of Dominica with loan funds from the World Bank.”
He said under the project, Dominica also contracted a US$5.5 million loan from the CDB because there are certain components of the design that had to be left out.
“So, we had to contract the loan from the CDB, and we are very grateful to the CDB for making those funds available in a very quick fashion,” he said, adding that the first phase of the project will include the construction of five bridges.
He said the procurement process is underway and it is hoped construction begins by mid-year.
Regarding the other major project, Skerrit said it also involves a grant of US$30.3 million from the United Kingdom government with the government and the Dominica Water and Sewerage Company Limited (DOWASCO) providing EC$9.2 million to finance major water projects in the country.
He said a total of EC$106.7 million will be spent on the water project, adding that the funds were made available to Dominica following the passage of Hurricane Maria in 2017 “and we recognize as a government that our water system was severely exposed to elements and the question is how do we go about building greater resilience in our water system in the event of a disaster”.
He said when the British offered assistance, the government felt it was not in the interest of Dominica to spend the funds across the island but to focus on the water sector.
He said all designs for the water strategy development project are complete and the tender documents submitted to the CDB with the hope that the contracts can be awarded by August.
Prime Minister Skerrit told a news conference Tuesday following talks with CDB president Dr. Gene Leon on his first official visit to the island, that he was “very much fortified by the discussions and the vision which the new president has for the bank.
The St. Lucia-born Leon, the sixth president of the region’s premier financial institution, told reporters he hoped that at the end of his five-year term his commitment to regional development would be better articulated.
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Trinidad and Tobago
MAJORITY State-owned Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) complained, in writing, that the Ministry of National Security’s September 2018 CCTV procurement process was “irretrievably compromised”.
The criticism of the ministry’s CCTV procurement process came in a letter written by former TSTT CEO, Ronald Walcott, dated September 17, 2018 and addressed to retired Colonel George Robinson, the then director of the Strategic Services Agency (SSA).
Walcott’s letter was copied to the then Minister of National Security, Stuart Young, former minister of Public Utilities, Robert Le Hunte, former TSTT chairman, Robert Mayers and the procurement manager at the SSA.
Walcott’s letter indicated the Request for Proposals process for the Re-engineering and Expansion of the National Security Network was due to close at 1.30 p.m. on September 7, 2018.
Bids from TSTT, Digicel and Cable & Wireless Communications (Flow) were received by the deadline. But at 1.48 p.m. on the deadline day, the bidders received an email from the SSA’s procurement department informing the three companies that an extension of time was approved for the submission of proposals. The new deadline was put to September 21, 2018. That email came 18 minutes after the deadline for the closure of the bidding process.
According to the Walcott letter: “Digicel, in particular, noted that the technical submissions of Digicel and other bidders who had submitted same in advance of the deadline, had been opened.
“Almost contemporaneously with Digicel’s email, the SSA procurement department sent an email to bidders at 2:32 p.m. indicating that the ‘opening process was handled by the Ministry’ and the extension of the deadline for submission of proposals was not communicated (presumably to Ministry officials) in a timely manner, and as such ‘[r]egrettably, the extension would have to be withdrawn’.”
The Walcott letter indicated there were contradictory emails and letters on the issue of whether the extension of the deadline was withdrawn. It was withdrawn, according to an email from the procurement officer at the Ministry of National Security, who wrote: “[O]n the recommendation of the Director, Strategic Services Agency, the Chairman, Special Tenders Committee has agreed to extend the date for the close of tender from September 7, 2018 to September 21, 2018, 1:30 p.m.…. Formal correspondence on this matter will follow.”
In the letter, Walcott said: “A total contradiction of communications to bidders is clear evidence that the SSA recognised that the communication to bidders of the granted extension of time was too late.”
The former TSTT CEO also had an issue with the fact that the company’s technical bid had been opened.
“TSTT collected its packages on Wednesday September 12, 2018 and noted that its technical submission has been opened, as was previously advised by Digicel in the email mentioned at paragraph 2 above,” according to Walcott.
His letter then stated: “Having regard to all of the foregoing, the tender process for the Re-Engineering and Expansion of the National Security CCTV Network has been irretrievably compromised, and any further progress of this RFP is patently unfair.
“Proper procurement procedure dictates that all bidders be presented with a fair opportunity to submit proposals in accordance with the procedure outlined in the RFP to which they are responding. It follows, therefore, that any extension to the deadline for submission of proposals must be communicated to all bidders well prior to the deadline date and time, and most certainly prior to any bids being opened. It is noteworthy that the extension of the original deadline from August 30 to September 7, 2018 was communicated nine (9) days in advance of the original deadline date.
“TSTT wishes to register its strongest objection to its technical bid being opened prior to an extension of time being granted, in circumstances where its bid information can be presumed to be public knowledge, which immediately prejudices its submission.”
Remedies
TSTT called on the Ministry of National Security and/or the Strategic Services Agency to:
• Retract the informal and formal correspondence and communications to bidders advising of an extension of time for the submission of responses to the RFP;
• Provide TSTT with a list of all parties which submitted proposals prior to the close of the tender at 1.30 p.m. on September 7, 2018;
• Produce to TSTT a copy of the SSA and/or Ministry’s documented procurement policies and procedures, with specific reference to the grant and communication of an extension of the closing date/time for an RFP, the tender closing process and the opening and recordal of proposals submitted; and
• Cancel the RFP process due to the procedural missteps outlined above, and issue a new and comprehensive RFP which addresses the concerns raised by TSTT in previous correspondence in order to allow for a comprehensive technical and financial submission by all prospective bidders.
At a news conference on April 14, 2022, Opposition MP, Roodal Moonilal indicated that the RFP process was not cancelled and replaced by a new RFP, but was concluded with the award of a contract to a multinational company called Johnson Controls, which did not submit a bid in the September 2018 RFP.
Energy Minister Stuart Young, who was Minister of National Security, from August 6, 2018 tp April 18, 2021, did not responded to a WhatsApp message asking him to confirm that the contract was awarded to Johnson Controls.
Police called in
In a WhatsApp interview with the Trinidad Express published on April 13, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the Government had stopped the award of an October 2021 CCTV data connectivity solution contract to Irish-owned Digicel.
Attorney General Reginald Armour was requested to do a review of the process and report back to the Cabinet.
The Prime Minister told the Express: “When the Cabinet discovered where they were going, a demand was made to see the details of the process that resulted in the concerns you also expressed. The documents were submitted and it is out of dissatisfaction and concern that the matter has been halted and sent to the AG for his advice and guidance.
“This is not the first time we have had issue with the attempt to award a contract in this Ministry. The Police had to be called in to trace ‘lost’ documents.”
Last Sunday, the Sunday Express asked the Prime Minister if he was referring to the 2018 RFP process when he referenced the Police being called in.
In response, Dr Rowley said: “The reference to the Fraud Squad that I made had to do with the mysterious disappearance of certain key documents pertinent to the procurement process at the Ministry of National Security/Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.”
Role of the SSA
Walcott’s September 2018 letter was addressed to the former director of the SSA, which is T&T’s intelligence-gathering agency, the letter was copied to the manager of procurement at the SSA and it mentions the SSA procurement department on five occasions.
Last Sunday, the Sunday Express asked Prime Minister Rowley if he could confirm that the SSA was also in charge of the 2021 procurement process.
The Prime Minister’s response was: “The procurement of cameras has been, and is, a matter dealt with by the Ministry of National Security and the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.
“The SSA is a user and advisory agency engaged in information gathering in the widest sense.”
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Dominica
Cassani Laville, Minister of Public Works and the Digital Economy, stated that the public property act number 14 of 2021 will come into effect on April 01 2022. The house of assembly passed the Act on December 05 2021.
The Cabinet approved the commencement date according to section 86 of the Act, which provides for the Minister of finance to make regulations to give effect to the provisions of the Act.
Minister Laville said the Cabinet also approved Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Regulations 2022.
The new act replaces the Public Procurement and Contract Administration Act of 2012. It aims to modernize public procurement by the principles of integrity, transparency and accountability and attaining the best value for money.
Key objectives of Public Property Ac
Minister of Public Works and the Digital Economy said the Public Property Act would Modernize public procurement following principles of good governance. It will also establish institutions required for the implementation of new legislation, such as the Public Procurement Board Procurement Review Counsell.
The Act also aims to the current participation of supplies, contractors and consultants in public procurement proceedings. The regulation outlines procurement criteria, including publishing open competitive procurement opportunities, content required in bidding documents and bid security.
“It includes measures to domestic industry and social, economic development through procurement by micro, small and medium-sized enterprise, including the ones led by women, youth, elderly and persons with disability group identified by the Ministers,” said Cassani Laville.
Furthermore, he said the evaluation committee would examine bids to ensure they meet basic eligibility criteria prior to a more detailed evaluation.
He also stated that the procurement method details would term the consultancy contract and requires that the selection processes be based on the quality or cost method.
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Barbados
The IDB has issued a request for expressions of interest to help Barbados structure a competitive framework to procure “large” capacity of utility-scale renewable energy and/or storage.
The winner will establish a procurement process that will include pre-qualification requirements and documents, tender documents and evaluation criteria, among other work.
Specific tasks will include reviewing the Caribbean country’s power sector legislation and 2019-30 national energy policy (BNEP) to identify legal and regulatory gaps, and provide recommendations and amendments, as well as determine the role and responsibilities of sector entities.
The BNEP seeks to have renewable energies supply 100% of electricity, breaking dependence on imported fossil fuels which cover 90% of the nation’s energy needs.
Documents for the seven-month contract are due by April 5, according to the procurement notice.
The work falls under an IDB-financed project to support the design of carbon-neutral strategies as part of the energy transition in Barbados.
For its part, the Ministry of Energy and Business Development is accepting proposals to provide consultancy services to implement a change management strategy for BNEP. Information is available at this link.
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