~ Questions Governor due diligence integrity ~
PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – “The Minister is simply running from the people and running from telling the truth,” says MP Christophe Emmanuel referring to Minister of VROMI Egbert Doran and the lingering questions surrounding the garbage collection contracts awarded last month to seven contractors.
The general public took to the radio airwaves late last week and into the weekend complaining and questioning the garbage collection process and how certain companies won bids if they are without the proper equipment to collect garbage.
“Not only is the public complaining about poor collection services in the districts, the Minister has yet to explain the people about how he is tackling that situation which seems to be getting worse when you see garbage thrown about the place as you drive around,” the MP said.
Besides the collection of garbage itself, the MP said the Minister has yet to be truthful with the public about how many of the bidding companies have now sought legal action at private law firms or intervention at the Ombudsman regarding the process. He added that once again, this also brings “the integrity of the due diligence executed by the Governor and his office into question.”
He said the Minister continuously tries to make it sound as if it was one company who complained and that any company who complained is doing so because they didn’t win a bid. “The companies, like the rest of us, want clear public explanations about how this thing went down. There is several allegations within government floating around and the Minister keeps saying that everything was done in accordance to the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the bid,” MP Emmanuel said.
“And yet, companies are stating that the way the bids were awarded and points calculated were not explained in the TOR. Why can’t the Minister explain to us how the points were calculated? Why some companies didn’t get points for certain aspects of their bid while others did? What was the original evaluation from the evaluation committee as well as the financial data that the evaluation committee had?
He continued: “Why can’t the Minister let us know if a contract was awarded to the father of a sitting MP? Why can’t the Minister explain if the final advice was signed by two or more Ministers or just himself? And where is government getting the extra money from to pay for increased garbage collection costs. Why can’t the Minister explain awarding of three parcels to one company totaling approximately Naf 20 million over five years, while more than 20 companies participated in the bid? And why can’t the Minister explain if the Governor of St. Maarten received all information relevant to the bid when he signed the document?
MP Emmanuel said there is much more surrounding the bidding process including what role the financial controller of VROMI played and the fact that said financial controller received a warning letter reportedly on instructions/complaint from the Minister of VROMI.
“You can’t run forever. This process must be examined from start to finish and everyone involved must be questioned. From the evaluation team, financial controller, everyone’s role must be clarified and they must answer to allegations not from me, all I am doing is asking questions, but from the companies who have decided to take the issue further. The Minister can prevent all of it by being truthful and stop singing the same song at press briefings. Nobody believes it,” MP Emmanuel concluded.
