00:00A major housing project valued at $3.4 billion is facing scrutiny.
00:05On Monday, April 13, former Housing Minister Camille Robinson-Regis raised the matter questioning
00:11the project's process, timeline and transparency.
00:15The Office of Procurement Regulator released a statement on Thursday, 16 April, saying
00:21one day after Robinson-Regis' statement on April 14, it formally instructed HDC to not
00:28proceed with the said contracts until the OPR completed its compliance checks.
00:34And on Thursday, a formal complaint was filed by former Housing Minister Randall Mitchell
00:40and senior counsel, former Prime Minister Stuart Young, on behalf of private citizen Wendell
00:46Eversley.
00:47The complaint questioned the integrity of the procurement process undertaken by the HDC.
00:52In the letter, the attorney said the matter is one of public interest, saying, quote,
00:56quote, this complaint is made on my client's behalf in his capacity as a member of the
01:01public, concerned with the legality, propriety and integrity of a procurement exercise involving
01:09a substantial quantum of public funds, end quote.
01:13The contracts are to be awarded across 11 packages, with concerns not about a single issue, but what
01:19is described as a pattern.
01:22The letter reads, quote, these include the structure and timing of the procurement itself,
01:27the conditions imposed on participation, and a series of contemporaneous reports which consistently
01:33raise concerns regarding transparency, fairness and the integrity of the process, end quote.
01:39Among the key allegations is that the process may have involved selective tendering, potentially
01:44limiting participation by qualified contractors.
01:48Mitchell says, quote, there is a real question as to whether participation in the procurement
01:53was restricted through a process of selective tendering.
01:57If so, the office may wish to examine whether the requirements of Section 28 were complied with,
02:04including whether any limitation was properly declared and justified, end quote.
02:09The complaint also raises concerns about transparency, saying, quote, in the absence of publicly available
02:15information regarding evaluation criteria, scoring methodology and project details raises a
02:22legitimate concern as to whether the procurement satisfies transparency requirements, end quote.
02:28There are also questions about whether all successful contractors have the capacity to execute projects
02:33of this scale and whether proper due diligence was conducted.
02:37The letter ultimately calls on the procurement regulator to act.
02:42The OPR is now being urged to launch a full investigation, obtain all relevant documents and determine
02:49whether the process complied with the law.
02:52Arbashi Tuwari Rupnarain, TV6 News.
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