{"id":22961,"date":"2022-07-07T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-07-08T03:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=22961"},"modified":"2022-07-06T17:28:51","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T22:28:51","slug":"st-ann-municipal-corporation-defends-47-m-contract-with-cleaning-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/st-ann-municipal-corporation-defends-47-m-contract-with-cleaning-company\/","title":{"rendered":"St Ann Municipal Corporation defends $47-m contract with cleaning company"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jamaica<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) on Wednesday that a request from the municipal corporation for $77.2 million came early in the COVID-19 crisis to carry out maintenance and rehabilitation works in the tourism areas of Oho Rios, St Ann\u2019s Bay, Brown\u2019s Town, and Discovery Bay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">The TEF board, however, approved $46.8 million for Ocho Rios only, for sanitisation and deep cleaning at Island Village, the Ocho Rios Pier, Main Street, Turtle River Park, the Ocho Rios market, White River, and Fisherman\u2019s Beach, Permanent Secretary Jennifer Griffith told the committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">The bone of contention at the sitting was the municipal corporation\u2019s emergency procurement of a sole contractor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">The committee decided that the arrangement between the municipal corporation and Rahim\u2019s Cleaning and Trucking Limited should be subjected to a probe by the integrity commission, or another appropriate agency, to resolve a number of questions that surfaced at the meeting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">\u201cThese figures really seem inflated\u2026 this is beyond my scope. As far as I\u2019m concerned, this needs to be looked at by some agency that is more equipped to understand these figures. I think this is an area for the contractor general to come in and take a look,\u201d PAAC Chairman Dr Wykeham McNeill said, as members expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation for the selection process as well as the level of expenditure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">He said the rationale for the selection raised more questions than answers, pointing to the agreement with Rahim\u2019s Cleaning and Trucking Limited dated March 26 this year, two months before the corporation received a letter of recommendation for the company from the regional operations manager of North Eastern Parks and Markets Waste Management.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">\u201cEven the letter itself is at best confusing\u2026 At no stage in this letter do they speak of sanitisation or any other issue of that nature. At best, this is very untidy and I\u2019m not certain how you arrived at this position,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">However, deputy chief executive officer and chief engineering officer for the corporation Xavier Munroe insisted that the procurement process followed Government guidelines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">\u201cWe didn\u2019t have a lot of time. We went directly to the NCC and we checked under sanitation; this is a contractor that has NCC in sanitisation \u2014 regardless of if they are doing work for another company in another category \u2014 this contractor has the NCC qualification in sanitisation,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">Members also suggested that the line items for the works appeared to be inflated, with Manchester North Western Member of Parliament Mikael Phillips saying: \u201cThis is like you just cut and paste what you had on your estimate onto his invoice\u2026 What I would have expected with that amount being spent, that at least to see if he could come in within or below your estimate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">\u201cI can\u2019t speak of it as [if] we did the cleaning to try and save money; we did the cleaning to try to save lives,\u201d Munroe rejoined.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">He also explained that the works involved \u201cfar more\u201d than outlined in the submission documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">Meanwhile, project director at TEF Johan Rampair explained that subsequent to the board approving the projects for the municipal corporation, other requests had come in that are now being investigated. He said such requests for funding have come from the municipal corporations of Kingston and St Andrew, St Catherine, and St Elizabeth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__body\">The permanent secretary noted that the St Ann Municipal Corporation had \u201ccome out of the blocks early\u201d with its request for the projects, but that the TEF board is now restructuring its budget to address more comprehensive sanitisation programmes for the remainder of the fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.jamaicaobserver.com\/news\/st-ann-municipal-corporation-defends-47-m-contract-with-cleaning-company\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>image:\u00a0 Pexels (Pixabay)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jamaica \u00a0 The Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) told the Public Administration and Appropriations Committee (PAAC) on Wednesday that a request from the municipal corporation for $77.2 million came early in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1091,"featured_media":22962,"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":[250],"tags":[124,285,71],"class_list":["post-22961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-articles","tag-jamaica","tag-maintenance-cleaning","tag-procurement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/pexels-pixabay-209230-scaled-e1657146498656.jpg?fit=1024%2C686&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-5Yl","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33965,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/transparent-process-in-contracts-awarded-by-municipalities-creary\/","url_meta":{"origin":22961,"position":0},"title":"Transparent&#8217; process in contracts awarded by municipalities &#8211; Creary","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"May 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica member of the debate team that represented the governing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), Richard Creary, has asserted that there is a \"clear\" and \"transparent\" process in awarding contracts at all municipal corporations locally. Creary was responding to a question from social media at Thursday night's local government debates on\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\/2024\/05\/pexels-walls-io-440716388-15543047-scaled-e1714693983937.jpg?fit=1024%2C735&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pexels-walls-io-440716388-15543047-scaled-e1714693983937.jpg?fit=1024%2C735&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pexels-walls-io-440716388-15543047-scaled-e1714693983937.jpg?fit=1024%2C735&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/pexels-walls-io-440716388-15543047-scaled-e1714693983937.jpg?fit=1024%2C735&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7023,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/level-the-playing-field-for-local-contractors\/","url_meta":{"origin":22961,"position":1},"title":"Level the playing field for local contractors","author":"Michele Marius","date":"October 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Concerns abound regarding the Government of Jamaica's continued dealings with Chinese company, China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), as dozens of road and building projects valued at billions of dollars are doled out and local contractors sidelined. Coupled with the recent ramblings by Jamaican workers, it seems that this company may\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\/2018\/10\/See-Saw-Game-Toy-Antranias-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C633&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/See-Saw-Game-Toy-Antranias-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C633&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/See-Saw-Game-Toy-Antranias-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C633&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/See-Saw-Game-Toy-Antranias-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C633&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20043,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/heart-ache-pm-golding-wrestle-over-conflict-of-interest-amid-calls-to-pull-gabbidon-as-board-chair\/","url_meta":{"origin":22961,"position":2},"title":"HEART-ACHE PM, Golding wrestle over conflict of interest amid calls to pull Gabbidon as board chair","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"January 6, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness has expressed confidence in Edward Gabbidon as chairman of the HEART\/NSTA Trust despite a litany of controversies plaguing the institution in recent times, including allegations of conflict of interest facing the board head. But Leader of the Opposition Mark Golding on Tuesday cautioned the prime\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\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/audit-g8faaf0f23_1280-e1644524531624.jpg?fit=1025%2C678&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":20286,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/opposition-raps-pm-on-heart-nsta\/","url_meta":{"origin":22961,"position":3},"title":"Opposition raps PM on HEART\/NSTA","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"January 20, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica \u00a0 THE Opposition says Prime Minister Andrew Holness made a bad decision in appointing Edward Gabbidon to chair the board of the Human Employment and Resource Training \/National Service Training Agency (HEART\/NSTA) Trust, and made it worse by expressing confidence in the now-resigned chairman in Parliament last week. News\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\/2021\/07\/pexels-ono-kosuki-5647615-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-ono-kosuki-5647615-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-ono-kosuki-5647615-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-ono-kosuki-5647615-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-ono-kosuki-5647615-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17609,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/ksamc-to-face-grilling-over-road-contracts\/","url_meta":{"origin":22961,"position":4},"title":"KSAMC to face grilling over road contracts","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"July 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC), Robert Hill, is expected to explain to members of Parliament\u2019s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) why almost 90 per cent of the 630 contracts the corporation awarded over a six-year period were done through the direct and emergency\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\/2021\/07\/pexels-cytonn-photography-955393-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-cytonn-photography-955393-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-cytonn-photography-955393-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-cytonn-photography-955393-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/pexels-cytonn-photography-955393-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C801&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":25042,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/jamaica-signs-financial-advisory-services-agreement-with-the-ifc\/","url_meta":{"origin":22961,"position":5},"title":"Jamaica Signs Financial Advisory Services Agreement with the IFC","author":"Mayra Bonilla Lopez","date":"November 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Jamaica The Government of Jamaica has entered into a Financial Advisory Services Agreement (FASA) with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to develop the North Coast Highway Project. The US$800-million agreement was signed by Minister of Finance and the Public Service, Dr. the Hon. Nigel Clarke, and IFC Managing Director, Makhtar\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\/10\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760067-1-scaled-e1665684918196.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\/10\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760067-1-scaled-e1665684918196.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760067-1-scaled-e1665684918196.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/pexels-andrea-piacquadio-3760067-1-scaled-e1665684918196.jpg?fit=1024%2C683&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22961","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=22961"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22991,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22961\/revisions\/22991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}