A feud between social media personality, Mikhail Rodrigues and businessman, Azruddin Mohamed over finances could bring an end to the controversial award of the $865m Belle Vue pump station which had come under attack by opposition MPs.
On social media yesterday, Mohamed disclosed that the contract of the Tepui Group Inc to build a wharf at Lot 49 Parker Street, Providence, East Bank Demerara was terminated as a result of $60 million being owed to him by Rodrigues also known as “Guyanese Critic”.
The Tepui Group, in which Rodrigues is a principal, had been awarded the massive contract by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) for the Belle Vue pump station despite complaints that it was unqualified and did not have the wherewithal for it.
Mohamed related to the Sunday Stabroek that Rodrigues had borrowed money from him for the construction of the wharf but never paid him back.
“He owes me sixty million Guyana dollars, I lend him money so that he can build this wharf at Providence on the East Bank and up to now he cannot account for the sixty million dollars which is loaned him”, Mohamed related.
The businessman said that the social media commentator had also purchased an excavator from his company Mohamed’s Enterprise in the year 2022 which was eventually “confiscated” as a result of Rodrigues failing to pay the full amount for the machinery.
Mohamed also noted that Rodrigues has an outstanding loan of $20 million to purchase equipment for a business venture.
The businessman said that he would be taking legal action against Rodrigues.
Rodrigues yesterday morning during his programme on social media admitted that he indeed purchased an excavator from the Mohameds but decided to return it after his friendship with the family became toxic.
He said that he decided to return the excavator to the businessman as he “wanted nothing to do with him”.
As a result of cutting ties with the businessman, Rodrigues said that he took it upon himself to purchase new equipment to commence works at the wharf and pump station.
Against the backdrop of the debt being owed to the Mohamed family, by Rodrigues, the Sunday Stabroek learnt that works on the Belle Vue Pump station couldn’t commence as Tepui doesn’t have the requisite finance and contracting experience to conduct such works.
APNU+AFC Members of Parliament Ganesh Mahipaul and David Patterson have argued for months that the contract awardee did not meet the standard evaluation criteria for bidders.
Patterson when contacted yesterday said that now that the truth has been revealed on social media that the Tepui Group Inc. was in no financial position to conduct works on the pump station and was inexperienced as it relates to contracting services, the Public Procurement Commission (PPC) should now re-examine the matter as it relates to the $865 million contract awarded by the NPTAB to the said company.
The former Minister of Public Works had strongly criticized the PPC over what he sees as its inaction over the investigation into the award of a pump station contract to Tepui.
He had said for months that the contract did not meet the requirement for the award as the company was formed in August 2022.
Since October last year, the Alliance For Change Member has been pressing the PPC to probe the matter.
The Public Procurement Commission has written the procuring agency, the National Drainage and Irrigation Authority and the NPTAB seeking information to enable an investigation but to date, there has been no further word to the public on its findings.
Efforts since to contact the Chairperson of the PPC Pauline Chase on the subject have been unsuccessful.
This newspaper on February 11th of this year reported that Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha had announced that works had started on January 30th on the Belle Vue Pump station.
This newspaper recently visited the West Demerara location but saw no sign of work being conducted.
Stabroek News had on December 31, 2023, reported that Mustapha said that the NDIA has provided the PPC with the relevant documents and tender proceedings concerning the probe into the disputed Tepui contract award.
He gave this answer in response to a question posed by this newspaper on the issue at a year-end press briefing held at the agriculture ministry’s offices in Regent Street, Georgetown.
He made it clear that since NDIA falls under his ministry, it was incumbent upon the drainage and irrigation authority to provide the PPC with the necessary documents to complement its probe into the contentious issue at hand.
Stabroek News also reported that former Auditor General, Anand Goolsarran, had opined that the contract awarded to the 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 Vue as well as the other two pump stations at Meten-Meer-Zorg and Jimbo.”
He added, “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.”
The engineer’s estimate was also for that project alone, so the NPTAB still has to explain how three awards were handed out from the same bid 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.
