Bids were received from three companies on Tuesday for the supply of prepaid meters for the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL), after the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) defused potential controversy over the submissions by one of the firms in the running.
Concerns earlier in the morning about whether the external label for the tender was missing from one of the bids saw the Chairman of NPTAB Donald DeClou being called to settle the dispute between the bidder and officials at the bid opening, which was held at the NPTAB’s Main Street office.
An engineer’s estimate of USD$697,800 ($143,049,000) was listed for the supply of an estimated 2,500 smart meters. Two bids were first opened; one from the formed partnership between Tesco and Elster (US$497,671 or $102,022,555) and the other Tantalus and Itron, whose bid was not read as it had no grand total, only sub totals.
The firm also had no form of tender page in its bid documents.
After the reading of the two bids, Chief Executive Officer of the Trinidad-based ENMAN Group, Donald Baldeosingh, who represented Mexico-based ENERI, informed that he had not heard his company’s bid. NPTAB officials told him that they had not received a bid and he then pointed to a chair where a scruffy package sat.
Officials told him that his envelope was not addressed as was instructed in the tender documents and as a result they could not proceed further, under NPTAB rules. He then objected and it was then DeClou was called.
After examining the envelope, DeClou reiterated what his staff had earlier said and Baldeosingh asked that it be recorded that he was protesting the decision, not before making a case that his label could have been lost during the handling process given its shabby state.
A little after 3 pm, NPTAB officials told Stabroek News that the bid would be opened but they did not give a reason for the change in decision.
The drama continued after the decision to open the bids, since when it was opened the internal envelopes were labelled the same as the outside. DeClou once again said that he would not open the rest of the contents and once again Baldeosingh objected, asking that a letter in a third envelope be opened that had all the labeling information, including a return address of the package.
He explained that the instructions were subject to a reader’s interpretation. “This using of one box for all tenders is new to me… In Trinidad, one box is used for each respective tender, so if you had GPL, all the bids would go into the tender box marked ‘tenders for GPL’ and the project name, not just a box marked tender box,” he said. “The labelling is done in such a way that on the main envelope, no one knows which company is bidding, so there is an internal letter stating the name of the company, its address and the project… If the tender board didn’t see it fit after reading the letter, then they could return the tender without it being opened and seeing the contents, to the bidder,” he added.
After his defence and plea for his bid to be opened, DeClou obliged. When the bid was opened, it revealed that ENERI placed a bid of US$1,285,101.63 or $257,020,200.
Baldeosingh left NPTAB’s office relieved. “I am relieved that it is over and that it was opened… I don’t know why it had to come to this, when it could have been resolved since this morning, since there was no way it was compromised,” he said. “My company was invited by IDB to bid for this project, we have a good bid. I am confident in our bid… good sense prevailed and my trip here was not in vain,” he added.
