Dear Editor,
Bulkan Timber Works was one of the four companies that tendered for the construction of the Bamia Primary School in Region 10, I have been following the public comments published in your newspaper on 12 November and in Kaieteur News on 11 November.
St8ment Investment Inc. was awarded the contract and I reckon in 20 months’ time the public will judge for themselves if this was the correct decision by the Honourable Minister for Local Government & Regional Development. I know the residents of Linden and the surrounding areas will be paying keen attention to the construction of this school.
My comment is in respect to the comments made by National Pro-curement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) Chairman, Tarachand Balgobin, who told Stabroek News that evaluators of bids are not required to conduct due diligence exercises into companies that tender for public projects.
“The evaluators, they are not required to do the due diligence on the persons that bid. They would presume that it is a valid company because of the company registration and so on would normally be included in the bid. Essentially what would happen is if the company did include that (their registration) in their bid the evaluators would assume that it is correct,” he explained.
I know Mr. Balgobin personally having served with him many years ago on the GFC’s Board of Directors and thus these remarks, if accurate, I find both astonishing and inexplicable.
My follow up question to Mr. Balgobin is, “What exactly then are the evaluators evaluating?”.
Yours faithfully,
Howard Bulkan
Bulkan Timber Works Inc.
