By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

WORKS Minister Desmond Bannister revealed yesterday that nine road works contracts worth $86m collectively were awarded without a public tendering process under the former Christie administration.

He called this an “abuse of the tendering process”.

He also revealed that contracts worth $100m were awarded for the Bahamas Agriculture & Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) project that were also not subjected to a public tendering process.

“Over $86m in road contracts were negotiated in a manner that is inconsistent with established public service procedures without any competitive tendering,” he said.

“Contrary to established public policy, not a single one of them went to tender. Members opposite simply chose the contractor that they wanted and issued a contract to them and these nine contracts were shared among five contractors.”

As Mr Bannister revealed the worth of the contracts awarded by the previous administration absent a tendering process, Free National Movement (FNM) parliamentarians expressed shock from their chairs.

Nonetheless, Mr Bannister said: “Let me say that as a politician I too would love to evade the tendering process. It can work well when you are purchasing goods, but when you are looking at services such as building structures and roads, price should not be the sole consideration.

“Experience, reliability and ownership of modern equipment are among the intangible factors that the tendering process as presently configured does not give sufficient weight to when considering value for money. So I’m not totally in disagreement with members opposite as to how they proceeded with road paving.”

Mr Bannister’s comments came in the context of responding to Engerlston MP Glenys Hanna Martin’s request for information on the road work contracts his administration has recently entered into. He identified ten such contracts, all worth less than $50,000, the threshold under which contracts are not expected to undergo a multi-layered tendering process.

Mr Bannister, however, said even these contracts should be issued on a competitive basis.

“…Usually several names are put forth, and the person whose bid is most attractive is selected,” he said. “This process was put in place so as to avoid allegations of corruption, since if a contract is negotiated with one individual without any competitive tendering, allegations may easily be made that it is a corrupt transaction and that value for money was not received by the Bahamian people.”

The contracts awarded included one for Mayaguana road works on April 15, 2014 worth $5,000,059; another contract was for a portion of Queens Highway, Andros awarded on December 30, 2014 for $7,106,801.87.

Others included a contract for Acklins on April 24th, 2016 worth $19,472,611; a contract for Dundas Town & Murphy Town Abaco on January 9, 2015 worth $5,015,506; a contract for Central Andros Roads on September 1, 2015 for $20,611,528.63; a contract for Green Turtle Cay roads on August 26, 2016 worth $4,469,363.22; a contract for BAMSI Perimeter roads on February 6, 2017 for $4,843,333.97; a contract for Acklins roads on May 19, 2016 for $7,248,725 and a contract for Crooked Island Seawall & Carriageway on September 19, 2016 worth $12,879,477.71.

Mr Bannister did not reveal the identity of the companies to which the contracts were awarded.

He hinted, however, that this will not be the last time he makes concerning revelations about how contracts were sometimes awarded by his predecessors.

BAMSI, he said, involved $100m in non-tendered contracts, a matter, he said, he will “deal with another time”.

After his speech, Opposition Leader Philip “Brave” Davis said he left key information out of his presentation.

“In each instance, the technical officers would have advised the minister as to value for money and (Mr Bannister) could have said that each of these contracts was approved by the Cabinet and there is nothing wrong with that,” he said.