YP Seaton
Monitor more contracts, YP Seaton tells CG
PROMINENT contractor YP Seaton wants the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) to start paying more attention to the process of awarding government construction contracts to local contractors.
Seaton told the Jamaica Observer last week that he is concerned that, on occasions, bids which come out on top in the process are sometimes changed for no obvious reason, and the contracts awarded to other contractors whose bids are often more expensive and who are not qualified to do the job.
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“The contractor general needs to become more involved in the process and look into these complaints, because when you are in business and you tender you have to accept the costs. It is very costly to put the tenders together,” he said.
According to Seaton, one recent tender cost his company over $9 million to put together, including the need for his staff to travel extensively to confirm the best sources of supply and the most reasonable prices. In addition, he had to meet a US$80,000 (J$8 million) bond payment. However, he claimed that after winning the contract with the lowest bid, backed up the professional expertise and experience of his company, the decision was changed and the contract awarded to another company with a bid US$1 million more than his, with no reason given.
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“It is very costly to make the bids, and after offering the best available tender for the contract and being selected, for it to be changed for no obvious reason and awarded to another bidder, with a cost US$1 million above your bid, with no explanation, must be of concern,” Seaton said.
“It is full time these shenanigans stop. There has to be some assurance that when the bid is selected, no change can be made without good reason given for the change, and the contractor general must protect the contractors from this behaviour by government officials,” Seaton said.
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The issue has taken on added significance following the recent exposure of issues surrounding the granting of the licence for 381 MW energy plant to Energy World International (EWI), and the OCG judgement that the process was improper which has led to the contract being withdrawn.
Special assistant to Contractor General Dirk Harrison and OCG communications officer, Sashein Wright, told the Sunday Observer on Friday that the OCG monitors a significant number of the contract procurements, but she admitted that the office is hampered by a severe lack of human resources.
“It would be unreasonable to expect 10 inspectors to do all the monitoring that is necessary,” she said, pointing to the OCG’s annual reports which have referred to the problem of inadequate staffing on numerous occasions.
“It is quite a lot of work for 10 people, but if we are provided with the information by the contractors who feel offended, we will do the necessary investigations,” she said.
The Sunday Observer was told by a tendering officer from one major contractor that there has been a reduced presence of OCG representatives at recent meetings to consider contract applications, opening up the process to undetected breaches.
“I have seen bids tendered without the appropriate bonds attached, and they are dealt with, and we are told by the procurement officers that the bond was attached but it was hidden. The OCG inspector would have required that it is shown before the bid is processed,” the source said.
In its last report tabled in Parliament (2012), the OCG said that, in keeping with its monitoring responsibilities, its Inspectorate Division monitored 967 “procurement opportunities” in 2012. The division is divided into two units – the Construction Contracts Unit; and Non-Construction, Licences and Permits Unit. Of the 967 “procurement opportunities” during that year, 600 were monitored by the non-construction unit and 367 by the construction unit.
This was a reduction over the number of contracts monitored in 2011, which the OCG attributed to a number of factors, including what it described as “a more focused approach in relation to the nature of the contracts monitored and based on the observation of the procurement practices of certain entities over time, plus the strategic monitoring of procurement opportunities and management of portfolio assignments”.
The OCG said that as it gathers more information on the procurement practices of the public bodies, the number of contracts monitored on a sustained basis will be further reduced.
However, contractors like Seaton, believe that the OCG should be increasing its presence in the process, instead of reducing it to match its available human resources.
