The sluice door specifications should be made available!

Mar 15, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

There is no contradiction between the decision taken by the government to allow members of the public and the media free access to bid specifications for public works, and the fact that persons actually bidding have to pay for bid documents containing these specifications.
There is a need to provide some background to this dispute. First, Kaieteur News has for some time now been pressing for the specifications for public works being carried out with public funds.
This newspaper has been making this call so that in the public interest it could monitor these projects in light of continuing reports that many of these projects are not being done to satisfactory standards and in some instances are going bad soon after the works are completed.
Also, there have been reports of controversies marring the bidding process itself. For example there was a report that an award of just under $11 million was made for the construction of a sluice door. This newspaper had estimated that the door could have been built for under $500,000.
The invitation for tender reportedly indicated that the tender was for the construction of a sluice door but the authorities later explained that the award was really for the building of the sluice door and the de- silting of the outfall into which the sluice drains.
Even so the cost of the de-silting seems prohibitive but the best way to resolve these controversies would be to make available the specifications of the tasks to be done on the project so that it can be determined whether the estimates are overpriced.
Soon after, the authorities indicated that the regulations permitted public access to the bid specifications and that such access would be available at the procuring entity during specified hours. Both the members of the public and the media would be free to inspect tender documents during this period.
This decision went against the grain of comments made by other members of the administration who were insisting that if this newspaper wanted to know about the bid specifications, it could either pay for these or become a contractor and bid for the projects.
After the decision was made public for access to the bid documents, one public official said that there was a contradiction in the public having free access and contractors having to pay.
There is no contradiction. The contractors are paying for written copies of the bid specs; the public and the media would simply have access to those specifications.
There is a logical reason for charging contractors for bid documents. Contractors require written copies of the bid documents so that they can prepare their estimates and otherwise effectively cost the job. By charging for these documents, the authorities ensure that only those contractors serious about bidding for the project would receive written specifications.
Otherwise, any person without the slightest ability to undertake the work or without any interest in bidding for the project would walk off the road and request a written copy of the specifications. This would be very costly for the procuring entity.
In order to avoid persons not serious about bidding requesting free bid documents, a charge is applied for these documents.
However, as is now the case, any member of the public, including the media, can have access to the bid specifications which will be made available for them to examine, not necessarily to have a printed copy.
This is a forward looking step in the interest of transparency and the Ministry concerned should be commended for taking the lead in ensuring that the public and the media have access to the specifications.
In the case of the media houses, since these serve a public interest function, they should be given free copies so as to enhance greater transparency.
It is therefore hoped that there will be no reversal of the recent decision to make access available to bid documents.
In fact the authorities should ensure that the bid specifications in relation to that sluice door and the de-silting of the canal are immediately made public so that this newspaper can check to see whether the work has been done as required and more importantly whether the taxpayers have gotten eleven million dollars worth in value.

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The sluice door specifications should be made available!

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