The Public Procurement Commission (PPC) yesterday stated that a “thorough” investigation will be done of the awarding of a pump station contract to the Tepui group and that responses are expected in a fortnight from the NDIA and the national tender board.
In a press release, the PPC was responding to a Sunday Stabroek news item headlined `Stop playing games with Tepui contract’ in which Member of Parliament David Patterson lamented that five weeks had elapsed without an update on the controversial awarding of the $865m Belle Vue pump station contract to Tepui.
Patterson had been pressing the PPC on this matter for two months.
In its release yesterday, the PPC said that with “regard to the Tepui matter in particular, which the commission notes has excited public interest, the commission at its last meeting of December 1, 2023 having received a copy of the tender proceedings from the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) on or about November 10, 2023, considered the Report of its Operations Department thereon and decided to put certain matters arising therefrom to the procuring entity (National Drainage and Irrigation Authority) and NPTAB for response in accordance with due process. It is expected that the request and response ought to be forthcoming within the next fourteen (14) days.
“The commission wishes to assure the general public that no stone will be left unturned in a full and thorough investigation into the matter as is done with all investigations of the commission in discharge of its constitutional mandate”.
It was noted in the release that Patterson had accused the PPC of evading the matter when he stated “One week they cancelled the statutory meeting, another week they said they will discuss the matter but they been evading the subject.”
The PPC differed.
“It is farthest from the truth, and wholly illogical to contend that the commission having taken the decision to launch an investigation would then evade a determination of same.
“There is absolutely no basis for such a contention. Any insinuation that a meeting of the commission was cancelled to avoid consideration of the matter is mendacious and mischievous”, the PPC said.
It added: “During the interim, a meeting of the commission scheduled for Friday, November 24, 2023 was postponed (not ‘cancelled’) to the next working day, that is, Monday, November, 27, 2023, to facilitate the presence of all commissioners as the commission endeavours to do.
“The award of the Tepui contract has engaged the attention of the commission at each and every meeting of the commission since it received a request for an investigation thereto from Mr. David Patterson, MP on October 3, 2023, as is reflected by the Minutes of the commission”.
The PPC added that notwithstanding its limited resources, it endeavours to complete reviews of all complaints and requests for investigations within the shortest possible time frame. It said that this varies “depending on what arises, and which may or may not be limited to the issue raised in the original request but which the commission in its wide constitutional powers can investigate”.
The PPC also criticised Stabroek News.
“It is most unfortunate that the Stabroek News would not follow basic journalistic good practices in putting the aforesaid to the commission and giving it an opportunity to comment prior to publication”, the release said.
In an invited comment, the Editor-in-Chief of Stabroek News, Anand Persaud said that the author of the press release had apparently not read the news item. He said that if it had been properly read the author would have discerned that the Chair of the PPC, Pauline Chase had been given an opportunity to comment on the matter but offered the excuse that she could not provide an update on the subject until all five commissioners agree on what course of action should be taken.
Persaud said that the PPC has always been given the opportunity to comment on these matters but its key officials either decline to answer or provide excuses. He said the newspaper will continue to report on procurement matters before the PPC undeterred.
Probity
The award of the Tepui contract has raised serious questions about the probity of contract awards by the NPTAB. Tepui has not had relevant construction experience and one of its principals Mikhail Rodrigues has had privileged access to Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo.
Since its full constitution last year, the PPC has been accused of shirking its broad responsibilities in favour of countrywide visits which seem to have no point particularly as it suggested in yesterday’s release that it has limited resources.
Like Patterson, Opposition MP Ganesh Mahipaul also noted that Tepui 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 the 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.
