Opposition questions dump tender process

| 16/03/2018 | 34 Comments
Cayman News Service, Cayman Islands landfill

George Town landfill, Grand Cayman

(CNS): Opposition Leader Ezzard Miller said that Health Minister Dwayne Seymour’s answer to his parliamentary question about the tendering process for the landfill contract had left him even more confused and concerned than he was before. Miller said he was trying to establish how many bidders were involved, who was pre-qualified and how many, if any, members of the consortium now in talks with government had been part of a post pre-qualification merger. After what appeared to be a frustrating back and forth between Seymour, Miller and other MLAs, the question about how the tender process was followed remains unclear.

Speaking to CNS following the exchange, Miller said he was trying to establish what process was followed and what the “competitive dialogue” was that government said it had engaged in before the selection of the preferred bidder, which turned out to be a consortium led by DECCO, the Dart Group’s general contractor.

He said he was concerned that the consortium was a combination of some of the originally pre-qualified bidders who had joined forces after these mid-point talks with the government, which raised the question that government had pursued a sole-bidder approach and not a genuine competitive tender for what will be a very lucrative public contract.

“The government has denied that but there remains a considerable amount of confusion over what happened,” he said. “I am even more confused and less informed now about this tender process than I was before I asked the question about the final choice and what the outcome is now likely to be.”

With a considerable amount of help from his ministry staff, Seymour said that seven bidders had submitted pre-qualification applications; one withdrew during the process, three failed on requirements and another was unable to support the financing, leaving just two bidders that were pre-qualified and engaged in what was described as a “competitive dialogue process”.

After that, the preferred bidder, DECCO et al, was selected and the unidentified second bidder became a “reserve bidder”, Seymour stated. He said government was now engaged in lengthy negotiations to arrive at a final contract covering technical and legal issues.

When Miller asked if any of the pre-qualified bidders had merged with the final bidder, the minister responded that they had not. But he did not indicate if any of the five who had applied for pre-qualification but failed had then merged with DECCO after the so-called “competitive talks”.

Following an exchange of several supplementary questions and confusing answers, the speaker closed down the line of questioning.

See the exchange on CIGTV starting at 12:15

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Comments (34)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    The public talk is is that when will the assessement for the February 2017 landfill fire become available or be revealed to the public?.

  2. Anonymous says:

    I don’t understand the controversy or why it matters whether or not Decco is collaborating with some of the unsuccessful bidders. The field was narrowed to two bidders. Decco was selected after a “lengthy competitive dialog process”. Now there only seems to be technical details to work out. In short, the contract was already awarded to Dart. If Dart is responsible for the project and decides to sub-contract some of the previous bidders for certain portions of the contract then that’s their prerogative, they are still responsible.
    Dart has the contract and presumably that contract includes a price tag.
    Sounds like fake news/fake controversy to me.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Anonymous, perhaps you might want to know who the no. 2 pick was before you go on your rant!! Maybe fake news, maybe not l

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      • Anonymous says:

        Maybe enlighten us or are you just stirring the pot with your own fake news and innuendo?

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      • Anonymous says:

        All these cryptic comments are laughable. If the minister or anyone has any info they should be sharing with the public, then they should just come with it.

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    • Anonymous says:

      It makes no difference because at least with the Dart Group it will get done unless they can get the Chinese to take over. Minister Seymour has no say in this anyway as he is just the front guy but the boss is pulling the strings. Just get the job completed ASAP please.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Agreed, this is a false controversy.
      Completely normal in any competitive tender process for the leading bidder to cherry-pick the good assets from failed bidders. This can only be a good thing as it strengthens the winning bidders, and means that any good elements in losing bids (where the whole bid package may not be up to scratch) are not lost from the final project.

  3. Anonymous says:

    This is a great deal for our country. Why always the negative talk. Praise to you unity members.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Great deal for The ministers friends you mean

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      • Anonymous says:

        Yeah let’s make sure no one makes any money so that we can continue to enjoy a toxic mountain of filth in the middle of our beautiful island for another 20 years. I’m past caring if someone makes a few million so be it.

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  4. Anonymous says:

    seymour would be sacked months ago in the private sector….
    totally out of his depth, but thats what you get when the best educated people in the country can’t be elected.

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    • UnCivil Servant says:

      Helloooooo if you are suggesting sacking Minister Dwene Seymour for performance related issues let’s not forget the Premier and other ministers like Julianna O’Connor, Joey Hew and Tara Rivers based on their woeful performance in Cabinet to date.
      Why limit it to just Cabinet include the Chief Officers and senior staffers like Jennifer Ahearn, Alan Jones, Eric Bush, Doreen Whittaker to name a few look at their performance as head of portfolios it’s all a mess with lots of blame to spread around.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Uncivil you normally get it wrong but even you should know that Dorine has retired and Eric is in London.

        Seymour is a good man but he said in December that he spent 17 hrs in his Ministry since May. Now he is reaping the benefits of his absence.

        Without Ahearn he would be totally lost.

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        • Anonymous says:

          If Dorine can be retired due to performance issues why can’t the others?

          Eric was transferred to London protect him from his a legacy of failure and mismanagement during his tenure. Look at the CCTV cameras, Immigration department ask CIO Linda Evans how that worked out. Then consider the hiring of the Fire Chief who does not meet the job description criteria but then again neither does Eric as a CO. Friends in high places protecting a brother’s son.

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        • Uncivil Servant says:

          There is UnCivil(a knockoff) and there’s Uncivil, careful how you differentiate.

      • Anonymous says:

        Who in the world is Alan Jones? Never heard of him.

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      • annonymous says:

        agree with your commnents. the whole lot needs to go

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    • Anonymous says:

      Go back to your country and save it before you attempt to be our saviors!

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    • Slacker says:

      Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, the Enron guys, Bernie Madoff, Jamie Diamon (who got a raise for only incurring 17 Billion$ in fines) got away with shit for years. This stupid meme of how the private sector is perfect has to stop.

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    • Sam says:

      Agree. But education isn’t everything. There is a sayings “ Educated beyond intelligence”. Wisdom and vision are more important than education. There are no visionaries in the CIG.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    The bidders are always smarter than the government. it’s just the natural order of things.

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  6. Anonymous says:

    He wouldn’t know east from west.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Next weeks headline- “Opposition questions need for oxygen.”

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  8. Anonymous says:

    Please god don’t let Miller derail the only progress made on the dump in 30 years!

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  9. SMH says:

    Big Mac to the rescue again! Indeed money well spend by Alden’s PPM. SMH

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  10. West bay Premier says:

    Is Miller the only one them with a brain and common sense and can see those kind of things.

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