Questions about Cottage Pump Award

Mar 22, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

The Ministry of Agriculture was supposedly building and installing a pump station at Cottage, Mahaicony. The project has been in the works for a while now and is incomplete. Whistle blower reports that a particular company was granted the project. The tender was awarded last August. No work has been done on site until now, some six months later. And the whistle blower reports that the contractor received advanced payment for the project. This can be verified by examining award of contracts.
Is it true that award was given before evaluation report was completed by tender board? Is it true that this particular bidder did not include import duty and VAT in the bid price? Is it true that evaluators were instructed to do evaluation report to fit the bid? Is it true that contract was given without VAT and duty? Would this bidder or contractor be allowed to supply items under the contract duty free and VAT free? Wasn’t/isn’t this evaluation a disadvantage to other bidders who included VAT and duty in their bids? Would the Ministry allow an independent audit of the evaluation of the project done so far to determine cost and veracity of claims?
Would the Ministry allow such a submission without VAT and duty? Is it true that the awardee of the project was the highest bidder even though the bid lacked VAT and duty? Isn’t this not unfair to other bidders? Is it not improper for officials to give instructions to evaluators on who to give contracts?
Yours truly,
Nigel Griffith