Minister of Land and Legal Affairs Saddam Hosein has highlighted several instances of alleged bid rigging and what he described as differential treatment by the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR).
During his contribution to the budget debate on Monday, he said a $475 million contract awarded to China Harbour Engineering Company for the Housing Development Corporation’s Santa Rosa Housing Development was later cancelled by the former administration, citing an evaluation report.
“The internal estimates were $300 million but they awarded a contract to China Harbour, which was $175 million more than the internal estimates. 175 million more. I am told, Mr Speaker, that one of the contractors would have made a challenge of this particular award to the OPR. And you know what happened? They were afraid that all of the information get out there. So you know what they do, Mr Speaker? They run and cancel it. They cancel it.”
Minister Hosein also alleged that the OPR treated procurement matters differently under the UNC and PNM administrations.
“Mr Speaker, you know what the OPR say? They did not stop anything you know. You see how they rush to stop things in the UNC government. You know what they do? They say, well, we’ll just do an audit. We will just do an audit. Nothing wrong with that. We will just do audit. You see the differential treatment, Mr Speaker, when it comes to the UNC and the PNM. But we will have none of it, Mr Speaker. We will have none of it.”
The Minister then highlighted another case involving three companies that submitted bids for the HDC’s Citrus Close Housing Development.
“One NH International, another one Wood Green, and another one Rainbow Construction. Rainbow Construction came in at a lowest, which was 137 million. Wood Green came in at $170 million, Mr Speaker. The Evaluation Committee said we are going to give the contract to Rainbow Construction. All of a sudden they said, no, no, no, no. Let me relook this entire evaluation.”
Minister Hosein said the contract was subsequently awarded to Wood Green.