Integrity probe into ex-AG yet to end 3 years after complaint by Govt into multimillion-dollar ambulance contract..
Trinidad and Tobago
Three years after the Government referred a complaint against former attorney general Anand Ramlogan over a multimillion-dollar contract for ambulance services, the Integrity Commission has said it cannot provide a time frame for the conclusion of its investigation of the complaint.
The complaint was referred to the commission on September 9, 2020.
But repeated requests by the Ministry of Finance for information on the status of the investigation, as well as a time frame for its completion, have produced a response by the Integrity Commission that it cannot give a time frame.
The matter arose following an investigation conducted by a Cabinet-appointed team into the circumstances surrounding the cancellation of an award of a contract to Medavie EMS, a Canadian company, to manage the 24-hour ambulance service.
The contract was first awarded through competitive tender by the Central Tenders Board (CTB) by letter dated September 8, 2011.
After the cancellation, a subsequent contract for $630.2 million was given, via a sole selective tender, to Global Medical Response of Trinidad and Tobago (GMRTT), which was previously successful when it tendered for the contract for a five-year period starting September 1, 2015, on the eve of the general election on September 7, 2015.
GMRTT is a joint venture between Amalgamated Security Services and American Medical Response, a North American provider of ambulance and emergency medical services.
The People’s National Movement (PNM) cabinet on July 13, 2017, agreed to the appointment of a team to investigate the process which led to the cancellation of the contract with Medavie and the eventual award to GMRTT.
The original two-member investigation team comprised (retired judge) Paula-Mae Weekes and Claire Gomez-Miller, an auditor.
Weekes was elected president of the country on January 19, 2018, and assumed office on March 19, 2018.
The Cabinet replaced her with Sandra Jones, a former permanent secretary (PS) to the prime minister and former head of the Public Service, who had also been a former PS in the Ministry of Health.
The Jones-led team submitted its final report to the Ministry of Finance on July 17, 2020, and the matter was referred to the Integrity Commission on September 9, 2020.
CTB’s procurement process ‘frustrated
The investigative report obtained by the Sunday Express concluded that all parties functioned within their roles and responsibilities, except for the then-attorney general (Ramlogan) who undertook to review the decision of the Central Tenders Board to award the contract initially to Medavie.
The then-AG directed the suspension of the CTB’s award and that subsequently “frustrated the CTB’s procurement process by withholding his findings and opinion”.
The Jones-led investigation team said it found no evidence of irregularities within the CTB’s tender process when it awarded the contract to Medavie and, therefore it concluded that “in the absence of any evidence to the contrary…the alleged complaint of irregularities (which Ramlogan had presented as the reason for his three-year-plus review) was baseless…and was made with the intent of subverting the award of the contract to Medavie.
“The (former) AG, deliberately or otherwise, failed to expedite and close the complaint thereby also subverting the award of contract to Medavie and giving all benefits to the unsuccessful bidder, GMRTT.
The team concluded that the (former) AG’s procrastination with his review, which started from October 2011, “deliberate or otherwise”, caused:
1. CTB in October 2014 (three years after his review started) to cancel the award given to Medavie
2. The AG’s “procrastination” also resulted in GMRTT, the twice unsuccessful bidder, to unfairly benefit through continued month-to-month contracts for approximately four years from October 2011 when the AG started his review to September 1, 2015, when GMRTT received a ($630 million) five-year contract,
3. It (the “procrastination”) also led to GMRTT to gain a five-year contract from September 1, 2015, to August 31, 2020, as a sole selective bidder and without Medavie being allowed to contest the bid
4. Lastly, it caused Medavie to be unfairly and unethically treated, with no grounds nor reason, without transparency, and without compensation for costs incurred post the award of contract.
“The Investigation Team found that as a direct consequence of his (Ramlogan’s) actions or lack thereof, the AG had caused CTB’s procurement process to be brought into disrepute, and the nation of Trinidad and Tobago to be seen internationally as a country with corrupt tendering practices,” the team concluded.
The report added: “The Attorney General by virtue of the power of his office and position in the Government was the major contributor to the subversion of the tendering process being conducted by the CTB,” the report stated.
Background
On October 11, 2011, the then-minister of health (Dr Fuad Khan) informed the permanent secretary in the ministry that the contract, which had been awarded to Medavie for the operation of the ambulance service, was due to be signed soon.
However the then-attorney general “in a verbal request” asked that the Ministry of Health delay the signing of the contract, pending his perusal of the contract and files.
The ministry complied with his request, even though it came at the time the CTB’s tender process had already advanced to the finalisation of the contract with the preferred service provider, Medavie.
In explaining the reason for his request, Ramlogan, in a letter dated October 12, 2011, to the minister of health, indicated that party/parties unnamed requested his review of the process “in the interest of transparency, consistent with the integrity of fairness in public life”.
Ramlogan, however, in a subsequent letter on November 9, 2011, to the PS in the Ministry of Health, stated that the review was based on a verbal request made to him by Khan.
Khan refuted this claim that he had instigated the AG’s review in a letter dated November 11, 2011, to Ramlogan, in which he stated: “I wish to unequivocally state that at no point in time, either verbally or in writing, did I seek your advice on the captioned contract.”
The investigation team said it found that the AG’s review was driven by an unidentified source who sought to have the process reviewed by him because of “certain allegations being made about the tender process”. The investigation team said it sought information on this complainant, via a questionnaire, but received none.
The report of the investigation team indicated that interviews and records confirmed that the Ministry of Health repeatedly made requests to Ramlogan to provide his opinion over the three-year period (between October 2011 to August 2014) when the Health Ministry “in frustration” terminated the tender process.
The report of the investigation team said there was no evidence that the then-AG acceded to the Ministry of Health’s requests for his opinion.
Cabinet was complicit
The investigation report found that the cabinet was complicit in the “unfounded delay and frustration of the contract” which had been awarded to Medavie.
GMRTT had received a three-year contract (2005-2008) under the Manning government.
But it was rejected for a further contract by the Central Tenders Board, first in April 2010 and again in September 2011, when Medavie Emergency Medical Service Inc of Canada was recommended by CTB.
However, because of the review being done by Ramlogan, GMRTT continued to be retained on a month-to-month basis, “benefitting directly both from the AG’s decision to instruct the delay of the signing of the contract with Medavie and his failure to complete (his review) or terminate his intervention.
“By the end of 2013, GMRTT had received an extension of 63 months (five years and three months), despite the fact that it had been an unsuccessful bidder in 2009 and again in 2011.”
The cabinet, in February 2013, despite the fact that it was aware that CTB had awarded the contract to Medavie EMS, agreed to the continuation of GMRTT’s month-to-month contract “with no caveat”.
By the end of 2014, GMRTT had received an extension of 75 months (six years and three months) to its 2005/2008 contract.
By August 22, 2014, the acting PS in the Health Ministry, Lydia Jacobs, in a letter to the director of contracts at the Central Tenders Board, indicated the ministry was no longer interested in executing the contract with Medavie and that the process should be aborted.
“CTB was asked to terminate the contract because of the lapse of time and in the absence of direction from the then AG,” the report stated. The director of contracts, CTB, by letters dated October 24, 2014, then informed Medavie and GMRTT that the Ministry of Health had advised that “due to circumstances beyond its control and the lapse of time, it is no longer interested in pursuing the project”.
Medavie was informed that the award given by letter dated September 8, 2011, to move to the stage of signing the contract was cancelled.
On February 15, 2015, the then-minister of finance approved the Ministry of Health’s request to have the tender for the National Emergency Services be done through a sole selection process, and on April 16, 2015, CTB issued its letter of award to GMRTT.
On August 13, GMRTT entered into a five-year contract for the period September 1, 2015, to August 31, 2020.
The contract sum was $630.2 million, representing $548 million, plus VAT of $82.2 million.
The report noted that in the final analysis, the unsuccessful bidder in the end was successful.
“The twice unsuccessful bidder GMRTT had received an extension of nearly seven years to its 2005/2008 contract plus a lucrative $630.2 million five-year contract by 2015 to the detriment of the successful 2011 bidder Medavie,” the report stated.
GMRTT continues to provide the ambulance service up to today.
Medavie, Canadian High Commissioner expressed concerns
During the review period, the high commissioner of Canada, by letter dated October 27, 2011, queried the delay in the execution of the contract between the Ministry of Health and Medavie.
“We were recently concerned to read a report in one of the Trinidad and Tobago newspapers alluding to the Government of Trinidad and Tobago’s plans to review this award (to Medavie). At the same time, we heard from the company that communications with your ministry (ie, MoH) had ceased, without explanation. I would be appreciative, Minister, of your assurance that a transparent procedure has been integral to this procurement process and that the preferred bidder has been, or will be, advised appropriately of any concerns and (will be) offered formally the opportunity to respond and thereafter continue with contract negotiations,” the high commissioner of Canada stated.
Image: Mikhail Nilov (Pexels)