Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) is preparing to make public its stance as it pertains to the recent loss of a bid to supply its Topco ® juices to government’s public school feeding programme.
The bid was won by Suriname’s Rudisa Beverage and Juices N.V.
“Yes we want to comment publicly…I am actually preparing a statement at the moment. The reason I am preparing a statement is that there are a lot of pertinent details that for the sake of clarity we prefer to put it in a written statement,” DDL’s Public Relations spokesperson Alex Graham told Stabroek News yesterday.
However, he explained that he could not say definitively when the statement will be released.
Stabroek News understands that DDL had written to the government after the company lost the bid to supply juices to nursery schools, the first since the People’s Progressive Party/Civic replaced milk with juices back in 2010, under the National School Feeding Programme. The programme allowed for each child to receive one box of juice along with seven biscuits, as a mid-morning snack.
The school feeding programme had boasted that both snack items were made locally with DDL supplying the juices and Banks DIH Limited the biscuits.
While not giving the name of the aggrieved company, the government on Saturday issued a statement informing that it had received a report by a manufacturer over the award of the contract for the supply and delivery of boxed juices.
It was because of the concerns raised with it by the manufacturer that government urged bidders for contracts for the provisions of goods and services to the state, to use the Bid Protest Committee established under the Procurement Act to address any concerns about the tendering process.
The statement said that in the case of the contract for the supply of the boxed juice, a recommendation was made by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board to have the contract awarded to the third highest bidder (Rudisa) as it had satisfied all the technical and administrative requirements. Cabinet subsequently offered its no objection to the recommendation and the contract was awarded accordingly.
It further noted that Cabinet was advised that the lowest bidder (DDL) was not recommended for the contract in view of continued issues with past performance dating back to 2012. “Further, the second lowest bid did not meet a technical requirement of 25% natural juice content in each box after tests conducted by the Food and Drug Department,” it added.
The Bid Protest Committee, which was established in June of this year under regulations of the Public Procurement Act, is chaired by Attorney JoAnn Bond and includes former GTT General Manager Archibald Clifton and Insurance Broker Ewart Adams.
