Alexander defends HDC contractor selection process despite OPR findings - Trinidad Tribune – Latest Trinidad
In this news:
Key takeaways
- Phillip Alexander defended the HDC's contractor selection for a housing programme.
- An OPR inquiry found deficiencies in supplier selection and financing arrangements.
- The HDC cancelled the procurement programme on June 17.
Min-is-ter in the Min-istry of Hous-ing Phillip Alexan-der has de-fend-ed the Hous-ing De-vel-op-ment Cor-po-ra-tion’s se-lec-tion of con-trac-tors for a $3.48 bil-lion hous-ing pro-gramme, ar-gu-ing that the com-pa-nies were drawn from the Of-fice of Pro-cure-ment Reg-u-la-tion’s reg-istry and sub-ject-ed to fur-ther fi-nan-cial checks.
How-ev-er, Alexan-der did not ex-plain why the HDC can-celled the pro-cure-ment pro-gramme on June 17 if the se-lec-tion and due-dili-gence process-es were sound. His de-fence fol-lows a re-port that an OPR in-quiry found de-fi-cien-cies in sup-pli-er se-lec-tion, bid as-sess-ments, pro-cure-ment over-sight and fi-nanc-ing arrange-ments for 11 proposed housing packages.
Defending the selection process
Speak-ing dur-ing a vis-it to a hous-ing com-mu-ni-ty in Corinth, Alexan-der dis-missed claims raised by MP Camille Robinson-Regis in Par-li-a-ment as hearsay and straw man re-port-ing. Alexan-der main-tained that the con-trac-tors were reg-is-tered and pre-qual-i-fied through the OPR sys-tem, while the HDC con-duct-ed ad-di-tion-al due dili-gence before finalising contracts.
How-ev-er, the OPR’s July 1 in-quiry re-port raised con-cerns about the pre-qual-i-fi-ca-tion of a sup-pli-er whose com-pa-ни pro-file in-di-cat-ed it was in-sol-vent, in re-ceiver-ship or fac-ing wind-ing-up pro-ceed-ings. The OPR al-so found that some sup-pli-er records lacked au-dit-ed fi-nan-cial state-ments or suf-fi-cient ev-i-dence of tech-ni-cal ca-pa-bil-i-ty for projects val-ued above $100 mil-lion.
Addressing financing concerns
Alexan-der de-fend-ed fi-nanc-ing let-ters de-scribed as non-bind-ing, ar-gu-ing that such arrange-ments were nor-mal before bor-row-ers drew down funds. The OPR found that eight of 10 let-ters from fi-nan-cial in-sti-tu-tions con-tained non-bind-ing dis-claimers, de-spite a re-quire-ment for bid-ders to demonstrate a minimum line of credit.
The reg-u-la-tor al-so found that the HDC had not es-tab-lished eval-u-a-tion cri-te-ria, a scor-ing method-ol-o-gy or min-i-mum thresh-olds for as-sess-ing fi-nan-cial ca-pac-i-ty. The HDC can-celled the pro-cure-ment pro-gramme on June 17, and the OPR called on the cor-po-ra-tion to take cor-rec-tive ac-tion.
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