By Antonio Dey
Former Public Works Minister David Patterson has reiterated that the controversial award of the $865 million Belle Vue pump station contract to the Tepui Group, does not meet the standard evaluation criteria for bidders, and that the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) must provide updates, on the subject and “stop playing games.”
For some five weeks now, the former minister has been requesting updates on the status of the investigations into the contract award but was told by PPC Chairperson Pauline Chase that the matter has to be discussed with all commissioners before a decision is arrived at.
Chase, who spoke to the Sunday Stabroek on the sidelines of a reception on Thursday held at the residence of the British High Commissioner said that she could not provide an update on the subject until all five commissioners agree on what course of action should be taken.
Patterson told the Sunday Stabroek that the procurement commission has been evading the subject for several weeks at statutory meetings which are usually held on Fridays.
“One week they cancelled the statutory meeting, another week they said they will discuss the matter but they have been evading the subject”, he lamented.
The Sunday Stabroek has seen a document titled, “Standard Evaluation Criteria for the construction of sluice pump station at Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara (Region 3)” and observed that paragraphs 7 and 8 of the project’s criteria state that bidders must demonstrate general construction experience over the past five years, by providing a list of verifiable completed projects.
“The value of the project, year completed, and clients’ names and contact numbers must be provided,” the document authored by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) stated.
“The project must demonstrate specific construction experience by providing copies of contacts with previous clients that show the bidder has completed one (1) project of similar nature within the past five (5) years,” it added.
Against this background, Patterson is contending that these procedures were not followed for the Tepui Group, which means the awarded contract was “flawed.”
This newspaper on October 25, had reported that the PPC had written to the NPTAB and the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority (NDIA) requesting a range of information on the controversial award of the $865 million Belle Vue pump station contract to the Tepui Group.
Sources say that letters were dated October 6 and the recipients were given five days to respond to the request for information.
The PPC’s correspondence for information was based on a request by Patterson for an investigation to be launched.
According to the sources, the PPC was
seeking copies of the tender document, all tenders that were submitted for the project, the report of the evaluation committee, and all other such relevant documents related to the tender which were never submitted.
NPTAB Chairman, Tarachand Balgobin, when contacted by Stabroek News recently, said that all these documents were submitted.
“I was on a month’s leave, but when I came back, we had a lot of in-house matters including that, so I met with the board of directors and we agreed, that all these documents must be submitted and that was done.”
Meanwhile, NDIA Chief Executive Officer (ag), Dave Hicks, said that he could not comment on the subject and advised that this newspaper contact the Ministry of Agriculture’s Public Relations Department. However, when contacted by this newspaper it informed “that it doesn’t have any knowledge of the subject.”
The PPC in its letter, also enquired about the date of the publication of the contract award.
It is also sought information from the NDIA on whether Section 39 (3) of the Procurement Act, Cap. 73:05 was complied with, that is, whether as the procuring entity, NDIA considered the report of the evaluation committee and gave approval or disapproval before the contract was awarded.
On October 11, Patterson told Stabroek News that the PPC had announced its intention to launch a probe into the contract award.
The MP had told Stabroek News that this response came from the commission’s acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mervyn Chung, who was filling in for Michael Singh, who was on leave.
Like Patterson, Opposition MP Ganesh Mahipaul also noted that the contracting company which was formed in August 2022, 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 NPTAB erred when it lumped two other contracts to the award.
Goolsarran explained that according to 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,” he added.
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 the project was not 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 his letter to the PPC, NPTAB issued a statement defending the award, contending that: 1) 13 of the 26 bids were deemed non-responsive and were therefore not considered; 2) 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 3) Tepui was the third lowest responsive bidder and was awarded the contract for the construction of the pump station at Belle Vue. This explanation by the NPTAB has sparked consternation.
