Dionne Rose, Parliamentary Reporter

CHRISTIE

Contractor General Greg Christie is unrelenting about statements he made about a conflict of interest, an absence of transparency and a lack of competition in the awarding of contracts to Appliance Traders Limited (ATL) on the controversial Sandals Whitehouse hotel project.

The Contractor General reiterated his position on the matter in an addendum to his July report. The addendum was tabled in the House of Representatives last Tuesday and in the Senate on Friday.

Mr. Christie said DunnCox, the attorneys representing Gorstew, joint venture partner on the project and also a shareholder in ATL, had challenged him on the statement.

The lawyers had argued that the process of tendering was in accordance with accepted procedures.

ATL was awarded a consultancy contract of J$3.4 million and a supply and installation contract of US$3.31 million (approximately J$218 million). However, the Contractor General said the awarding of the contracts breached the Government's Procurement Proce-dures and Guidelines.

Consulting services

On the consultancy contract, ATL was to provide design and consulting services for food and beverage service, laundry equipment and cold/dry storage equipment for the hotel.

Mr. Christie said, based on the stated value of the contract (below J$4 million), it is the OCG's findings that the contract could have been awarded without reference to the National Contracts Commission (NCC).

Competition

"However, it could only be so awarded if it were subjected to competition, which it evidently was not, in breach of the then existing Guidelines," said the addendum."

Mr. Christie pointed out that if it was the intention of the Urban Development Corporation (UDC) to have the contract awarded on a "sole source" basis, it should have first sought the NCC's approval to do so.

The Contractor General said at the time of the purported signing of the contract, on September 1, 2002, the applicable provisions of the Ministry of Finance and Planning's Circular #17, dated May 15, 2002, made it very clear that procuring entities could only "employ the sole source method of procurement in the acquisition of goods, services and construction works for contract values that are less than J$1 million.

"The subject contract was valued at J$3.4 million. There is no evidence, however, that the intended procurement was approved by the NCC," said the Contractor General.

With regards to the US$3.31 million, the Contractor General said it appears that this contract was awarded to ATL through competitive tender. He said documents provided indicate that three tenders were received and evaluated.

"However, the addendum stated, there was no evidence to show that the procurement opportunity, given that the contract was valued over $4 million, was advertised in the national newspapers or that the developers were exempted from so doing by the NCC. It also stated that the contract was not endorsed by the NCC and approved by the Cabinet (since its was more than $15 million in value), prior to award, as was required."