Govt. retenders single project four times for item supplied by only one company

Sep 19, 2021 News

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…practice clearly points to “stage being set for favoured contractor”—Insider

Kaieteur News – The procurement practices being employed at the Ministry of Agriculture’s National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA), is coming under increasing scrutiny with evidence surfacing to suggest that the budget agency is in fact turning down what appears to be competitive bids and opting to retender for a project that can be sole sourced.
Additionally, each new round of retendering by the NDIA sees the proposed prices being quoted by contractors skyrocketing.

Compounding the situation is the fact that the materials being requested by NDIA are for a specific type of Steel Sheet Piles, namely 327 pieces of AZ 13-700 (D) ASTM A690 Steel Sheet Piles.
Kaieteur News has since been reliably informed by an insider, with intimate knowledge of the supply chain and process for the identified materials, that there is only one company that provides Steel Sheet Pilings at that specification.
The identified quality specification for the sheet piles to be provided, according to a quote seen by this publication from the sole supplier globally, Arcelor Mittal Projects, is listed as ASTM A690.
Arcelor Mittal is headquartered in Luxembourg, with the sales rep., for Latin America, which encompasses Guyana sales, being Julian Guitierrez who works out of Torres Global Bank.
The quote provided by the company for the 10-metre long lengths of steel sheets, was provided at €751,285 or $184.7M, minus commission.
That quote was sourced by a ‘bidder’ participating in one such round in bidding that were had in August last, for the supply of the materials.
The request had also included a separate single sheet pile and a lighter weight than the substantial 327 pieces being called for by the NDIA.
It was explained to this publication that government could sole source the material for as little as US$1M when the related ancillary charges are added on.
Instead, the option to repeatedly retender for a specific type of material that can only be sourced from one supplier is raising eyebrows among some in the industry.
One such insider, speaking to this publication on the condition of anonymity, said it must be publicly questioned why it is that the Engineer preparing the projects document for NDIA insists on that specification for the steel sheet pilings since there are several other grades of similar steel sheet pilings that can be used for the same purposes indicated by the NDIA.
This coupled with the repeated retendering, according to the insider, “has to be questioned publicly since it can only point to the government setting the stage to have some favoured contractor to get the contract—a contractor that would eventually have to purchase the steel from the same company.”
The bidder cited as example, “if government was looking to purchase a Tesla vehicle why would it go out to public tender when there is only one company in the world that makes Tesla vehicles.”
The August 10 round of bid openings, for which the international company supplied a quote at $184.7M, saw bids coming in from Platinum at $463.9M, Roopan Ramotar at $544.5M, STP Investments at $632M while Samaroo Investments’ bid came in at $654.7M.
Additionally, H. Nauth and Sons had submitted a bid for the supply of the steel sheet pilings at $465.3M while Aria Civil Works bid was $464.6M.
A previous round of bidding in July saw bids from Yunas Civil Building and Construction Services, which submitted a proposal at $183.7M, while Dax Contracting Services’ bid was $280.3M.
Samaroo Investments bid which was in that earlier round of bidding had also submitted a bid for $281.2M, while Fix It Depot submitted an offer of $277.5M, S. Jagmohan Construction and General Supplies Inc. at that time proposed supplying the materials for $254.1M, while Colin Talbot Contracting proposed an offer of $253.5M.
At the time, David Persaud Investments had proposed supplying the Steel Sheets to NDIA at a cost of $27.9M, some $253M less than the highest offer at the time.As it relates to the September round of bids submitted, Toolsie Persaud Limited provided a proposal for $294.6M, General Marine Company’s bid was $306.2M, Gafsons Industry Limited submitted a bid for $292.8M while Dax Contracting Services gave a proposal to supply the steel sheets for some $259.3M.
Other bidders in that round of the tender opening, saw proposals from Brinco Shipping and Trading Company Limited for $245.3M, David Persaud Investments Limited for $210.8M, Silica Sand Post Inc. at $272.3M, Fix It Depot’s $275.3M, GSK Excavation Service Inc. came in at $208M, Samaroo Investments’ bid was $251.6M, S. Jagmohan Construction and General Supplies Inc.’s bid was $219.6M and Yunas Civil Building and Construction Services’ was $259.3M.
Additionally, another contractor had lamented that the practice of retendering by the Ministry’s NDIA amounts to blatant collusion on the part of the Ministry, since it is not only unethical but also tantamount to corruption and should be considered illegal.
It was explained that each time the Ministry puts out a tender for a contract—many of which runs into the hundreds of millions or billions—it would cost every person or company submitting a bid, hundreds of thousands of dollars for each bid submitted.
When the contract is opened at the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) and retendered, at least one contractor who spoke to this publication on the condition of anonymity explained that it is tantamount to the state agencies providing insider information to their preferred bidders.
This obtains since after repeated retendering, the preferred bidders would be able to know the rates being charged by competitors and eventually be allowed to outbid the others.
It was noted too that when complaints are lodged requesting the rationale behind the refusal of a bid, these are often times brushed aside or met with vague answers.
This publication understands that the NDIA under the Ministry has already retendered this project on at least four occasions including in August last.
Another of the projects highlighted to this publication that have in recent months been repeatedly retendered, includes the construction of two pump stations, a farm to market road and some drainage infrastructure in Georgetown.
Additionally, another of the projects under the auspices of the Ministry that has been the subject of retenders is for the rehabilitation of 18 kilometres of road at Ituni/Tacama.

 

 

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