Regulator yet to receive complaints on HDC’s Santa Rosa project tender
Trinidad and Tobago
Despite several contractors vowing to challenge the intention of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) to award a contract to Chinese firm China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC), none have done so.
On July 31, the HDC informed the eight other contractors who bid to construct the $475.8 million Santa Rosa Housing Project of its intention to award CHEC the deal. This signalled the start of a standstill period which ends on August 14, giving the competitors 14 days to challenge the decision or lodge a complaint.
However, Procurement Board of Trinidad and Tobago chairman Beverly Khan said yesterday that there has been no contact from any of the contractors involved.
“As of today, August 7, we haven’t received any complaints or challenges to the particular procurement proceeding,” she confirmed.
Meanwhile, Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry (JCC) president Fazir Khan has rubbished claims that the contract awarded to CHEC was similar to the 2019 cancellation of a US$72 million housing construction deal with the China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Company by the Government.
This was suggested by Opposition MP Dr Roodal Moonilal in a statement on Monday.
Five years ago, the JCC filed a FOIA request which, compounded by public pressure, led Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to announce the cancellation of the contract to construct 5,000 apartment units at specific sites across Trinidad. He told journalists at a post-Cabinet news conference that the contract was reviewed extensively by the Cabinet and parts of it did not meet its acceptance and approval both structurally and legally.
However, Khan said there is no comparison to be made.
“To go back to 2019, it’s a completely different scenario in terms of the legal landscape. So then, there was no procurement legislation as we have it now and the JCC actually had to execute a freedom of information request in order to get the details of that contract to become public and then that was not palatable, and it ended up being retracted,” he said.
“Today, anything that happens in terms of tendering is under the purview of the regulator and we are waiting to see how the due process unfolds because that means that the legislation is working,” he added.
In 2019, the HDC was not required to notify bidders under the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, 2015, which was only partially proclaimed. The full establishment of the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) occurred in 2023.
According to the JCC president, the OPR’s standstill period, which could be no fewer than ten working days and not more than 15, is critical for aggrieved contractors.
Once the period expires, the HDC will issue a notice of the decision to award the contract, providing suppliers or contractors with a debriefing on the award decision. The award decision will include reasons for the selection, such as the name and address of the chosen supplier or contractor, the contract price, and the procurement method used.
It must also specify the evaluation criteria and scoring system from the solicitation document, as well as the scores achieved for each criterion and sub-criterion, the total score of the successful supplier or contractor, and the specific bidder. Additionally, it should explain why other bids or proposals were unsuccessful.
The OPR can review its decision during the standstill period. The OPR also has the discretion to suspend the procurement proceedings within three days of receiving the application before the procurement contract comes into force, if it deems such a suspension necessary to protect applicants’ interests.
In such cases, the procuring entity cannot award the contract until it receives approval from the OPR.
“There have been examples where contractors already have made several complaints and the OPR was very transparent in dealing with it. So, we know that they have the system in place and they have the capacity to deal with it,” Khan said.
On Tuesday, Moonilal said the Government should only engage foreign companies for expertise that cannot be found in T&T.
He said this agreement with CHEC is unlikely to lead to the hiring of local workers, which he highlighted as a major concern. This was a similar worry when China Gezhouba Group International Engineering was awarded a multi-million dollar project.
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