Cabinet will on Tuesday receive a presentation from the Ministry of Local Government on six companies that submitted expressions of interest (EOIs) to build Guyana’s first solid waste recycling plant, but one firm has already questioned the thoroughness of the ministry’s evaluation process.
“We are going to be presenting the proposals on Tuesday. The head of that committee will do the presentation…,” Minister of Local Government Norman Whittaker told Stabroek News last Friday. “What is going to Cabinet is the relevant information and a recommendation for which company,” he added.
Whittaker stated that the names of all of the companies that submitted EOIs will not be made public until after Cabinet’s Tuesday meeting.
However, Michael Mosgrove, of the Canadian firm Panther Inc, told Stabroek News that his company submitted an EOI and he questioned the evaluations of the proposals, saying that he did not believe they were thorough.
In the latter part of 2013, the government had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a Canadian company, Natural Globe Guyana Inc. However, the MoU was scrapped by the government in less than two weeks after discrepancies emerged surrounding the Canadian company’s chief executive officer (CEO) Mohammed Osman.
Reports had revealed that the company had only built a model of the US$30 million plant that was required to be established under the MoU. The CEO was also accused of misrepresenting Andriana Webster, the daughter of Human Services Minster Jennifer Webster, as one of the prime investors of the project and claims that the facility would be constructed without a cost to taxpayers also raised suspicion.
Following the withdrawal of the agreement with the company, the government had re-advertised for expressions of interest in the building the plant.
Despite criticism over its evaluation and processing of the aborted agreement, the selection of the new investor still rests with the Local Government Ministry. The government had announced its preference to collaborate with firms that had previous working experience in building such facilities in other countries.
Musgrove informed that two months ago his company received correspondence from the Ministry of Local Govern-ment, which indicated that it wanted a question to be answered. While he prepped for a thorough questioning exercise on the details of project and the integrity of his company, he was faced with only one question.
“I was preparing for some tough questioning, you know, about my company; what the project entails; how we will execute the public sensitisation aspect; that sort of thing. But the only question asked was, ‘How much will this cost the Government of Guyana,’” he related.
“I am not kidding you. Just a single question. Yes, one. And it was cost to your government… I have that already in the proposal, so I was kinda taken aback. But it was easy for me because all I said was, ‘Absolutely nothing.’ Because that’s what I have proposed,” he added.
He said that his proposal, while straightforward, should have piqued the curiosity of the evaluators and questions should have been raised on the technicalities of the project.
It was Musgrove who drew to government’s attention the non-credibility of Natural Globe Guyana Inc. He feels that if thorough investigations were done in that first instance, discrepancies would have been uncovered and government would not have had to face the embarrassment it did then.
Whittaker was probed on what would be presented to Cabinet on Tuesday but he maintained that he will not speak on the recommendation until after Cabinet’s approval. “I am not allowed at this point… until the presentation to the Cabinet, then anything will be public. We [the Ministry of Local Government] decided that we would not put this to the public but after[wards] every John, Harry, Dick and Jane will be known,” he said.
“After Tuesday talk to me and I would in a position to answer all your questions,” he added.
