by Linda Straker
- International Competitive Bidding provides equal opportunity to bid for required goods, works, and services
- Last quarter of 2022 notice invited bids to supply school furniture under Grenada Education Enhancement Project
- CDB financed equivalent to US$1,00,000 toward furniture project
Mobilisation, Implementation, and Transformation Minister Andy Williams has disclosed that the Dickon Mitchell Government has told the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) that it does not favour the procurement rule, which requires international bidding for a project to be implemented in Grenada.
“Just last month, we fought we the CDB and told them [that] we have carpenters and joiners in Grenada here that we want to do the job and not send the job overseas. They were telling us that we have to do international bidding for certain furniture for schools, and we said no, we want our people to do the job, and this is the approach we want to take,” he told a meeting at the Grenada Boys Secondary School (GBSS) on Monday, 20 February 2023.
The meeting or consultation was with private land owners and other service providers in the construction industry. It was to provide information about Government plans to build 500 homes for the 2023 budgeted cycle.
“We as a Government believe in our people, empowering our people, and part of why we are having this consultation right here now is that when we start to build these 500 houses, we want to be able to use our people to do the job,” Williams said as he justified rejecting the international bidding process.
According to the CDB procurement rules, International Competitive Bidding aims to provide all eligible prospective bidders with timely and adequate notification of the requirements of a Recipient of CDB Financing and an equal opportunity to bid for the required goods, works, and services.
Williams did not provide in-depth information about the specific CDB project. Still, on the Government of Grenada procurement website, there was a notice in the last quarter of 2022 inviting bids to supply school furniture for the Ministry of Education under the Grenada Education Enhancement Project.
The last day for bidding for the project was 30 November 2022. The notice explained that the Government of Grenada (GOG) has received financing from the Caribbean Development Bank in an amount equivalent to US$1,00,000 towards the cost of the Supply of school Furniture Project and intends to apply a part of the funds to cover eligible payments under the Agreement.
Providing background to the project, the notice said that payment by CDB will be made only at the request of GOG and upon approval by CDB and will be subject, in all respects, to the terms and conditions of the Loan Agreement.
The sealed bid from eligible and qualified bidders was for procuring 800 student chairs, 800 student desks, 800 teacher desks, 400 executive desks, 400 storage cabinets, and 800 lab stools.
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The government needs the ability to choose the supplier they want. Cheaper is NOT always the best or correct choice.
You need the rest of the regulations for this bidding. You don’t necessarily have to choose a foreign supplier or the cheapest either. There must be more explicit details given as to materials, dimensions, and design also. You must see if the loan is contingent on accepting the cheapest. I agree that all projects MUST be offered to Grenadian companies BUT they must also ve able to fulfill the contract specifications and be subject to examination of particulars so there is no monetary funny business, which also applies to foreign suppliers. Too long we see demands like those Chinese building projects bringing Chinese workers instead of employing Grenadians. There must be a regulation of a high percentage of qualified workers being hired from Grenada on any contracts coming into the country.
This is outrageous that CBD will subject a local project to international bidding. This explains why the developing countries are always at a disadvantage. Certainly, if bidding goes outside of Grenada, Grenadians will lose out.