The contentious $865 million Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara, Pump Station contract award to Tepui Group was flawed, as not only should the company have been disqualified for not meeting the bidding criteria but the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) erred when it lumped two other contracts to the award, former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran says.
He explained that from his analysis, “there has been a violation of the Procurement Act as regards the award of the contract for the construction of sluice/pump station at Belle View as well as the other two pump stations at Meten-Meer-Zorg and Jimbo. As regards the Belle Vue pump station, the system appeared to have been manipulated to facilitate the award of the contract to Tepui Group Inc,” Goolsarran told the Sunday Stabroek.
According to the bidding documents for the project which were opened on June 27 this year, and seen by the Sunday Stabroek, the project was for a pump station at Belle Vue on the West Bank of Demerara. The engineer’s estimate was also for that project alone, so NPTAB still has to explain how three awards were handed out from among the same bidders when it was not a project divided into lots.
