Former Public Works Minister David Patterson yesterday said that the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) has said that it has launched a probe into the contentious $865 million Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara, pump station contract awarded to the Tepui Group.
The APNU+AFC MP told Stabroek News that this response came from the commission’s acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mervyn Chung amid concerns raised over the issuance of the contract.
According to Patterson, the ball is now in the court of the PPC, as accountability must take its course.
“I got a response from the acting (CEO) to my letter which outlined the flaws and he said an immediate investigation is underway”, Patterson told this newspaper.
“A contract for the construction of a Pump Station at Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara, Region #3, was awarded to Tepui Group Inc. on August 14, 2023, the procuring entity was the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority, Ministry of Agriculture, I write seeking an investigation into the award of this contract on the basis that the Contractor was not eligible for the award,” Patterson said in a letter to the PPC recently.
He contended that the contractor, Tepui Group Inc., was not eligible for the award since it does not have the requisite experience stipulated in the bid documents, that is, successful completion of projects similar in nature and size within the last three years. Tepui Group was formed in August 2022.
Like Patterson, Opposition MP Ganesh Mahipaul said that the contracting company did not meet the bidding criteria.
This newspaper also reported that former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran opined that the contract awarded to Tepui Group was flawed, as not only should the company have been disqualified for not meeting the bidding criteria but the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) erred when it lumped two other contracts to the award.
Goolsarran explained that from his analysis, “there has been a violation of the Procurement Act as regards the award of the contract for the construction of sluice/pump station at Belle View as well as the other two pump stations at Meten-Meer-Zorg and Jimbo.
“As regards the Belle Vue pump station, the system appeared to have been manipulated to facilitate the award of the contract to Tepui Group Inc,” Goolsarran said
According to the bidding documents for the project which were opened on June 27 this year, and seen by this publication the project was for a pump station at Belle Vue on the West Bank of Demerara. The engineer’s estimate was also for that project alone, so NPTAB still has to explain how three awards were handed out from among the same bidders when it was not a project divided into lots.
In response to a public advertisement last May for the construction of the sluice and pump station at Belle Vue, there were 26 bids. The highest bidder was Nabi Construction Inc. with a bid price of $1,181, 867,183 while the lowest bidder was Gavco Construction & Supplies Inc. with a bid price of $740,584,800. Tepui Group’s bid was $865,543,500. Seventeen other bidders had bid prices lower than that of Tepui. The Engineer’s Estimate was $779,198,584.
Following Patterson’s disclosure of the letter to the PPC, the NPTAB issued a statement defending the award, contending that: (I) 13 of the 26 bids were deemed non-responsive and were therefore not considered; (ii) the lowest and second lowest responsive bidders were awarded the contracts for the construction of the pump stations at Meten-Meer-Zorg and Jimbo, respectively; and (iii) Tepui was the third lowest responsive bidder and was awarded the contract for the construction of the pump station at Belle Vue.
