Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
Bamia school contract fiasco highlights dire need for Procurement Commission- Figueira
Kaieteur News – The Procurement Act of 2003 clearly states that suppliers and contractors seeking Government projects must substantiate their past performance with the necessary documents for consideration. However, a ‘fly-by-night’ company, St8ment Investment Inc. has been granted a whopping $346 million contract to build a new Primary School at Bamia in Region 10, with no public records indicating any construction experience.
Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Jermaine Figueira
The new Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Jermaine Figueira in an interview with this newspaper, said that this flaw highlights the importance and need for the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) to be established.
According to him, “My concern is with regard to this particular company. It hasn’t been registered for over a year, it has no known public information with respect to the company undertaking any works of this magnitude, the fact is that they are going to be building a school to house children and teachers. That is a concern to me, (given that) the company having no public experience to do such large construction” could have been awarded such a contract.
He said, even though St8ment has contracted a company to supervise the construction works, it does not stray from the fact that this is a blatant disregard for the Constitution.
“But it is still concerning that this particular school was put to be bid for, and people with experience would have bid for it. People with known experience would have bid for it, and none of them got the contract. It brings into question the need for the Public Procurement Commission to be established and it brings into question what role did the NPTAB (National Procurement and Tender Administration Board) played in this regard, because it is clearly a breach of the Procurement Act and NPTAB criteria,” the PAC Chairman emphasized.
He added, “That is why we have been saying that the issue of the Public Procurement Commission needs to be prioritized or to be operationalized, where the Commission is put in place. Because those contractors who lost the bid to a company with no experience could have lodged their complaints to the PPC, but there is no commission in place and there is no recourse for those aggrieved contractors.”
CHAPTER 73:05 of the Procurement Act 2003 declares that each supplier or contractor that wishes to participate in procurement proceedings must qualify by meeting the criteria as the procuring entity considers appropriate. These include, “That its past performance substantiated by documentary evidence would commend it for serious consideration for the award of the contract”.
Two weeks ago, Popular Disc Jockey, Entertainer turned radio and television station owner, Kerwin Bollers, along with well-known local football promoter, Shanghai Major, signed the contract for the construction of a $346M school at Bamia, Region 10.
That contract was signed at the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development. Minister Dharamlall, at the time of the signing, said that the project is expected to be completed within 20 months.
Region 10 Chairman, Deron Adams criticized the award of the contract, to the unknown builders, which was done at the level of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board. It was reported that four companies submitted bids for the contract.
Adams also expressed his disappointment that the contract was signed without his notification, as an elected official of the region.
One of the companies which tendered for the project, Bulkan Timber Works in a letter to another section of the media complained about NPTAB’s statement that the agency is “not required to conduct due diligence exercises into companies that tender for public projects”.
The businessman, Howard Bulkan elaborated, “The evaluators, they are not required to do the due diligence on the persons that bid. They would presume that it is a valid company because of the company registration and so on, would normally be included in the bid. Essentially what would happen is if the company did include that (their registration) in their bid, the evaluators would assume that it is correct.”
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