{"id":17620,"date":"2021-07-22T21:34:55","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T02:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=17620"},"modified":"2021-08-26T10:37:02","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T15:37:02","slug":"kalinago-territory-housing-scandal-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/kalinago-territory-housing-scandal-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Kalinago Territory Housing Scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On 28<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0May 2021, the government of DOMINICA received tenders from five (5) contractors, invited in what the National Authorising Officer (NAO) of the European Development Fund cites as a negotiated [tender] procedure, for the construction of fifty (50) houses in the Kalinago Territory grouped in six (6) lots.<\/p>\n<p>In an article dated 6<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0June 2021[1], Prime Minister Skerrit took ownership of the process stating, \u201c\u201c<em>We got some monies from the European Union and as Minister of Finance, as Prime Minister, I am responsible for indicating along with the European Union, how we spend that money and where these monies are allocated for,\u201d Skerrit said. \u201cI decided \u2026 [that] I want all of the money spent in the Kalinago Territory and that is how we are getting the 50 homes in the Kalinago Territory for Kalinago brothers and sisters.<\/em>\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n<p>DNO goes on to indicate, \u201c<em>The Prime Minister revealed that the contract has gone out to tender and the bids should be in and hopes that a contract can be awarded \u201cin the next few days.\u201d Construction works are expected to begin in July 2021<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are many interesting things about this tender that was actually \u201cout\u201d since April 2021.\u00a0 (1) There was a previous tender properly undertaken under the rules to the European Commission which returned tender on the 24<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0July 2020. (2) The Government of the Commonwealth of DOMINICA through the NAO, attempted to secretly invite contractors to bid on this second round, (3) None of the three local contractors who formed the joint venture, which was positioned to be \u00a0\u00a0awarded at least 3 of the lots in the first round of 24<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0July 2020, were invited and were refused documents for Round 2. (4) The procurement rules under the Public Procurement & Contract Administration Act #11 of 2012 (PP&CA Act #11 of 2012), which are still in force, were totally ignored.\u00a0 (5) The Delegation of the European Union in Barbados seems quite conformable that funds from the European Union are being used in a procurement process that is engaged outside the national law and riddled with irregular and discriminatory practices.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Round 1 \u2013 The First tender for 50 Houses in the Kalinago Territory<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This tender was conducted under the PRAG rules of the European Union and yielded returns on 24<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0July 2020 from five tenders, F& C Construction, NH International (NHI), CEI Ltd, Argos and ACE-JARS -STEWCO (2020) JV.\u00a0 The results and analysis are presented in Table 1 and 1.1 below.\u00a0\u00a0 A few things are clear:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"253\">\n<li>That if all contractors met the post-qualification requirements for the respective lots, and appropriate discounts offered applied,\u00a0<strong>the best possible award would be for a total of EC$ 26,643,253.94, VAT inclusive.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>ACE-JARS -STEWCO (2020) JV would be awarded lots 1,2 & 5, F&C C Lot 3, NHI lot 5 and Argos Lot 6.<\/li>\n<li>That NHI and CEI Ltd were on the average $1.25 M (38% higher) and $2.0 M (57% higher) respectively, than the two indigenously local contractors.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This event was cancelled because the total tender amount that could be awarded \u2013 pre-VAT of EC$23,168,046.90 \u2013 was cited as beyond the funding provided by the European Union.\u00a0\u00a0 It is interesting that the government and NAO had the option to negotiate with the contractors and did not do so.\u00a0 One of the opportunities for negotiation was to reduce the scope of works, for example,\u00a0<u>reducing by deleting the accesses as was done for Round 2.<\/u>\u00a0 Another option was to inject funds from other sources, or proceed with fewer houses or lots in the first instant, allowing a second round for the balance, given that the Kalinago people had a critical need for housing post-Hurricane Maria in keeping with government reports that this part of Dominica suffered the hardest hit in terms of housing.[2]\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>The Secret Nature of Round 2 Tender \u2013 28<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0May 2021 \u2013 and inherent discriminatory practices.<\/em><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The NAO office administered the 2<sup>nd<\/sup>\u00a0round of tenders in a clandestine manner, choosing not to publish the event or invite all the previous tenderers of Round 1, or more accurately deliberately denying the opportunity of three local contractors who formed the ACE-JARS-STEWCO (2020) JV to tender[3].\u00a0 In fact, while the NAO refused opportunities to those who provided the economically most advantageous tender on at least three (3) of the six (6) lots, at the same time, the NAO sought the help of other government departments to find \u201csuitable\u201d tenderers.\u00a0 Of those sought, at least one admitted that it could not meet the post-qualification criteria and did not submit tender, and it is questionable if any of the others, besides NHI, could meet the requirements for more than one (1) of the six (6) lots.\u00a0\u00a0 Published using the EU tender documents, the NAO called it a\u00a0<strong><em>\u201cnegotiated procedure\u201d<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 the definition of which is still being withheld \u2013 yet it had all the hallmarks of irregular and discriminatory practices that has been used to shut-out productive private sector entities from State-control or financed procurement events for goods, works and services. \u00a0The NAO did not respond to our follow-up email of 17<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0May 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The only known difference in the scope between Round 1 & 2 is the removal of accesses and movement of one house from one lot to another.\u00a0 The results of the 28<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0May 2021 submission and analysis is presented in Table 2 & 2.1 below.\u00a0\u00a0 A few things are clear:<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>That NHI and F&C C were the only two tenderers who participated in both rounds, however F&C C submitted for Lot 3 in Round 1 and Lot 1 in Round 2.<\/li>\n<li>The difference in NHI prices per lot in Round 1 & 2 were on the average less than 2%, 1-5%, and less than 1% on the total tender sum without discounts for the two submissions a 10 months apart.<\/li>\n<li>That if all contractors met the post- qualification requirements for the respective lots[4], and appropriate discounts offered applied,\u00a0<strong>the best possible award would be for a total of EC$ 27,290,739.35, VAT inclusive \u2013 approximately<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>EC$ 647,500<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>more than the result of Round 1 \u2013 10 months ago \u2013 24 July 2020.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>If ACE-JARS -STEWCO (2020) JV had been invited and submitted tenders for the same lots as in Round 1, with prices within the margin of change of NHI (practically same pricing for a competitive event) and the accesses of Round 1 were removed in the pricing,\u00a0<strong>then the best possible award would be for a total of EC$ 23,342,161.82, VAT inclusive\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013\u00a0<strong>over $3M less than the result of Round 1 \u2013 10 months ago \u2013 24 July 2020.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The Government plans to award contracts[5]\u00a0above the initial budget allocation and at least 12.4% more than it would have on the face value of the tenders of 24<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0July 2020 which was for a large scope of works.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/commentary-kalinago-territory-housing-scandal-edf-11-srbc-wrk-8\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>image: pexels-photomix<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 28th\u00a0May 2021, the government of DOMINICA received tenders from five (5) contractors, invited in what the National Authorising Officer (NAO) of the European Development Fund cites as a negotiated&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":17354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[112],"tags":[110,173,216],"class_list":["post-17620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-newsdevelopments","tag-contracting","tag-contracts","tag-dominica"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-photomix-company-101808.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-4Ac","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17353,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/kalinago-territory-housing-scandal\/","url_meta":{"origin":17620,"position":0},"title":"Kalinago Territory Housing Scandal","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"July 9, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"On 28th\u00a0May 2021, the government of DOMINICA received tenders from five (5) contractors, invited in what the National Authorising Officer (NAO) of the European Development Fund cites as a negotiated [tender] procedure, for the construction of fifty (50) houses in the Kalinago Territory grouped in six (6) lots. In an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News\/Developments&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28753,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/dominica-and-grenada-positioned-to-stage-recycle-oecs-model-demonstration-projects\/","url_meta":{"origin":17620,"position":1},"title":"Dominica and Grenada positioned to stage Recycle OECS Model Demonstration Projects","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"July 6, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Caribbean June 12, 2023\u00a0\u00a0\u2014 The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has identified two Member States \u2013 Dominica and Grenada \u2013 to stage Recycle OECS model demonstration projects. The two countries met the eligibility criteria and were deemed most ready and viable for that purpose. The disclosure was made by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pexels-mali-maeder-802221-scaled-e1688671022528.jpg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pexels-mali-maeder-802221-scaled-e1688671022528.jpg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pexels-mali-maeder-802221-scaled-e1688671022528.jpg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/pexels-mali-maeder-802221-scaled-e1688671022528.jpg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21994,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/dominica-to-benefit-from-multi-million-dollar-loans-and-grants-from-cdb\/","url_meta":{"origin":17620,"position":2},"title":"Dominica to benefit from multi-million-dollar loans and grants from CDB","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"May 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Dominica \u00a0 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\u00a0for 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760067-scaled-e1651713315633.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760067-scaled-e1651713315633.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760067-scaled-e1651713315633.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760067-scaled-e1651713315633.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21778,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/dominica-public-property-act-2021-to-come-into-effect-from-1-april-2022\/","url_meta":{"origin":17620,"position":3},"title":"Dominica: Public Property Act 2021 to come into effect from 1 April 2022","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"April 21, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Dominica \u00a0Cassani 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.\u00a0 The\u00a0Cabinet\u00a0approved the commencement date according to section 86 of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Articles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/pexels-david-jakab-1051388-scaled-e1650501857449.jpg?fit=1024%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/pexels-david-jakab-1051388-scaled-e1650501857449.jpg?fit=1024%2C720&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/pexels-david-jakab-1051388-scaled-e1650501857449.jpg?fit=1024%2C720&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/pexels-david-jakab-1051388-scaled-e1650501857449.jpg?fit=1024%2C720&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2928,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/pm-there-was-a-bidding-process-for-bhs-2nd-cruise-pier\/","url_meta":{"origin":17620,"position":4},"title":"PM: There Was A Bidding Process For BHS, 2nd Cruise Pier","author":"Project Calls","date":"August 17, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): In response to the question if there was a bidding process for certain capital projects such as the new Basseterre High School, the second cruise pier and National Heroes Park, Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris said the government has followed all of the rules relating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News\/Developments&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2991,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/pm-harris-claims-fears-of-tendering-procedures-unfounded\/","url_meta":{"origin":17620,"position":5},"title":"PM Harris claims fears of tendering procedures unfounded","author":"Project Calls","date":"August 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News\/Developments&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Shelf-of-Legal-Books-freestocks.org-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Shelf-of-Legal-Books-freestocks.org-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Shelf-of-Legal-Books-freestocks.org-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/Shelf-of-Legal-Books-freestocks.org-Pexels.jpeg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1091"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17620"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17627,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17620\/revisions\/17627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}