Opposition Leader Pennelope Beckles has called for the removal of the board of directors of the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) after the government decided to cancel a multi-billion dollar project (one TT dollar=US$0.16 cent) which has been the subject of an investigation by the Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) since April.
In a statement, Beckles is calling calling for the removal of the three government ministers in the Ministry of Housing saying that the HDC’s decision to terminate procurement proceedings for the TT$3.4 billion Design-Build-Finance (DBF) housing programme amounted to an admission the process was flawed and should never have progressed to the stage it did. ‘The population would have had no knowledge of this cancellation because the HDC merely referred to the release as ‘RFP No. 050126 – DBF – Portfolio 1,’ leaving no one other than diligent watchdogs able to identify the true impact of the release,’ Beckles said.
Beckles said that the procurement exercise involved the proposed award of contracts to favoured financiers of the ruling United National Congress (UNC) government and recently incorporated companies with little or no housing development experience.
‘This cancellation represents an admission of the inappropriate award of state contracts under highly suspicious and scandalous circumstances,’ Beckles said, accusing the government of failing to address housing issues while thousands of citizens continue to await housing solutions.
Minister in the Ministry of Housing Phillip Alexander said the Kamla Persad-Bissessar government had taken the decision to pull the process entirely rather than allow it to become mired in prolonged disputes and delays that could further postpone the delivery of thousands of homes.
Alexander said that the cancelled procurement exercise, which was intended to deliver approximately 3,700 housing units, will now be re-tendered alongside an expanded slate of housing projects.
‘It was going to be a back and forth, and before it became something that was just going to drag on, we’re not leaving it in limbo,’ Alexander told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper, adding ‘we took the decision to say, look, you’re not happy with this process, we’re going to pull it, we’re going to come back at it, where any of the issues that you had a concern with before will not exist.’
On Wednesday, the HDC issued an official Notice of Cancellation terminating procurement proceedings for its ‘Portfolio 1’ housing project with immediate effect under Section 33 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Property Act, noting that it had determined that discontinuing the exercise was in the ‘public interest.’
Section 33 of the Procurement Act permits a procuring entity to cancel procurement proceedings before a contract is awarded, provided the reasons are properly recorded. While the HDC confirmed that those reasons have been documented in the official procurement record, they have not been publicly disclosed.
Alexander said while the government’s priority remains delivering housing to citizens, ‘we really don’t appreciate wasting this time here, because we really want to deliver the houses’.
He said the same projects would be returned to the market, alongside additional housing packages.
‘These same projects that have been pulled here will be reissued together with more, and every single developer, because that was the number one complaint that we got, that some people felt like they didn’t get time to tender, so now everybody has a chance.’
On April 8, the HDC had issued a Notice of Decision to Award naming 11 intended contractors for various housing packages.
The proposed awards were collectively valued at more than three billion dollars. However, on April 17, the OPR intervened and directed the HDC to suspend the process pending a review of the procurement proceedings.
In her statement, Beckles criticised Housing Minister David Lee, as well as Alexander and junior housing minister, Anil Roberts, claiming they had failed to deliver meaningful results in the housing sector.
Beckles said the main opposition People’s National Movement (PNM) would continue to scrutinise the government’s handling of the housing sector and hold it accountable for its decisions.
The OPR has not yet publicly disclosed the outcome of its review.