Poor Port Dev. tender process cost taxpayers over $1.7 M!
In her testimony before the PAC former Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Works Mrs. Arlene Smith-Thompson expressed concern about Mr. Claude O. Skelton-Cline’s being on the Tender Board to select a company for the project as “he was dealing with some of the same entities that he had been negotiating with earlier.”
More evidence of Ports Board left out!
According to the report on page 10, section 42 the entire process from tendering to selection, to termination lasted from August 2012 to September 2013. During this period, despite the involvement of former Consultant, now Managing Director of the Authority, Mr. Claude O. Skelton-Cline, the Authority was again largely left out of the process.
The report detailed that this was demonstrated in the following events:
a. On October 17, 2012, the Deputy Financial Secretary Mr. Wendell M. Gaskin told the Board that the prior process that had been undertaken by the Minister for Communications and Works Honourable Mark H. Vanterpool was not handled properly and that the Ministry of Finance was now managing the tender process for the project;
b. Six months later on April 16, 2012 the Minister attended a meeting of the Ports Board and informed the members that the “Cruise Pier Development is going forward despite the noise from the public;”
c. On May 3, 2013 at a special meeting of the Authority’s Board, the Financial Secretary, Mr. Neil M. Smith and the Managing Director Mr. Claude O. Skelton-Cline made an elaborate presentation to the Board members asking them to pass a Resolution allowing the Ports Authority to assume responsibility for the expenditure incurred by Tortola Pier Partners (TPP) (up to $1.7 million) should the arrangement that the Ministry of Finance was pursuing with this developer fail to solidify into an agreement.
Why was the Ministry of Finance involved?
The PAC report considered the involvement of the Ministry of Finance in the procurement process for the Cruise Ship Port Development Project. The Committee ascertained that the BVI Ports Authority as an independent statutory entity was fully capable of engaging the tender process for development works to be managed by that body.
In addition, the PAC report said that the Authority had in the past engaged the procurement process for projects involving the cruise pier and other port developments. No reason was provided to the Authority or to the PAC on why the process was not followed in August 2012 as appropriate, the report stated.
The Committee also concluded that the Ministry of Finance infringed on the BVI Ports Authority’s independence by engaging and controlling the tender process for a project which is properly under the control of the BVI Ports Authority.
Tender process lacked transparency & was biased costing tax payers $1.7 M
The PAC concluded that the procurement process engaged by the Ministry of Finance for the Development of the Cruise Pier Project was flawed as it created an unfair bias towards TPP’s submittal and rendered other prospective tenders at an immediate and severe disadvantage.
The PAC questioned the efficiency of the Ministry of Finance’s procurement process which after more than a year of assessment and negotiation resulted in failure to execute a contract for the project and a liability for the BVI Ports Authority in excess of $1.7 Million Dollars.
According to the record the $1.7 Million was paid to TPP.
32 Responses to “Poor Port Dev. tender process cost taxpayers over $1.7 M!”
Allyuh ndp operatives too smart for this blog we... Lo
These people Mark and Cline think we are fools?
The perpetrators should be held responsible and made to pay back the people. It is our money. They need to be j..led.