Premier flatly denies gov't involvement in contract splitting
First District Representative and Virgin Islands Party (VIP) Opposition Member, Hon. Andrew A. Fahie asked the Premier whether the government, since retaking office in November 2011, had engaged contractors on any capital project in a manner that could be referred to as contract splitting.
The National Democratic Party (NDP) introduced and passed the Public Finance Management Regulation (FMR) Act in 2005 which prohibits the practice of contract splitting.
In his response, Premier Smith defined contract splitting as “a subdivision of a project or task into multiple phases or contracts to avoid exceeding the applicable limits of the petty contract in order that the project would not have to go through the radar and scrutiny of a tender process. It could also be defined according to United Kingdom Treasury Board contracting policy as a practice of unnecessarily dividing an aggregate [requirement] into a number of smaller contracts, thereby avoiding controls on the duration requirements or contract approval authority.”
Premier Smith continued, “Madam Speaker, I can say that since taking office, my government has not engaged contractors in any such manner or for any such reasons and we have therefore not engaged contractors or any capital projects in a manner that could be referred to as contract splitting.”
He stated that his administration had instead “engaged as many contractors as [it] could on some projects in order to provide employment for contractors who some refer to as the ‘small man’ during these [shortening] times when the construction industry has slowed down due to the world recession, the effects of which we are feeling in the BVI.”
According to the Premier, ordinarily, government would have been able to inject more money into the economy and commenced other needed projects. However, having taken office and “finding the cupboard bare”, they were instead left to wait to accumulate sufficient funds through “prudent management” in order to facilitate this.
Hon. Fahie was not pleased with the response and in addition to stating that the cupboard was never bare he noted that the Premier had offered a different definition than one which was previously “clearly defined” in the FMR.
The question by Hon. Fahe followed accusations in a recently released report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) against the former VIP government of consistently engaging in the said practice during their term in office that ended in 2011. The report also accused the then VIP government of approving projects before they were put into tender.
The report was focused specifically during the period 2008-2011 and was commissioned by the NDP government.
Hon. Fahie said the NDP government commissioned PWC report used the very contract splitting definition of the FMR in arriving at its conclusions, which accused the former VIP government of contract splitting.
Premier Smith countered that what his government has done, “given people various parts of contracts to engage many contractors.” He added that the government was not splitting contracts to avoid the tender process.
The Premier assured that his government was not engaged in contract splitting by any definition, including any that could be found in the FMR.
It was later revealed that four projects commissioned by the NDP amounting to over $3.5M and were not tendered but rather issued through the method of petty contracts, according to the Premier. He also denied that any of the projects entailed any form of contract splitting.
Petty contracts are deemed to be those for any projects which amount to less than $100,000.
The PWC report was laid before the HOA in its previous sitting on April 4, 2013 and subsequently withdrawn by the Premier following several concerns about the propriety of its release aired by Hon. Fahie.
A request was also made by VIP Member and Second District Representative Hon. J. Alvin Christopher during the previous sitting of the HOA for the report to be debated at the next HOA sitting but this has not been done. The report was instead taken from the table.
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27 Responses to “Premier flatly denies gov't involvement in contract splitting”
Euripides
I don't want to hear from these NDPs no more. Listen to what all we learn yesterday that they had hidden from the people: W....W a worthless smooth talking crim!n@l as a consultant getting $405,000.00; One night for teacher's dinner $99,000; Craft Alive over one million: Hospital parking over one million; Mance Road over one million dollars. Spooner roads over one million; PWC unethical financial report one hundred thousand dollars; no approval from UK for airport nor port project; & on & on. The NDP got to go! And NOW!
Otherwise the BVI will never be as great as she was destined to be!