Central Garage Inc responded to a recent public tender by the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) to supply two Mercedes-Benz vehicles with water tanks only to be told at the opening of the bids that the process had been changed from a public tender to sole sourcing.
This is after the firm had been invited by GWI to submit a bid, following the extension of the original deadline on the public offer and the firm had gone to the expense of securing quotations from its suppliers and a bond from its bank as part of the bidding requirements. The firm is still paying interest on the bond, as it has not been formally notified as to the status of its bid.
Central Tender Board Manager, Neermal Rekha, says Central Garage Inc was the only bidder to have responded by the extended deadline and adds that the GWI blundered. He said it was only on the morning of the bid opening that the Tender Board was made aware that GWI was no longer interested in the public tendering process and was seeking clearance from the World Bank for sole sourcing.
Rekha said the letter to the World Bank, seeking a no-objection to sole sourcing by GWI, was not sent to the Central Tender Board and he is yet to see such a letter, the bank's response or word from GWI on how to proceed with the matter.
Dereck Hudson, General Mana-ger of GWI, says the issue is not one he would want to discuss in public. When it was put to him that the issue of public tendering is an issue of public concern, he said if Central Garage Inc had concerns, they should contact him as he had no intention of using Stabroek News as an "intermediary".
Dereck Hudson
Patricia Dean, Managing Director of Central Garage Inc, says, despite a promise by GWI officials to get in touch with the company to alert it on the status of its bid, no contact had been made, three weeks after the bid opening.
Central Garage had not responded to the tender when it was first advertised but when the deadline was extended to November 4th, one of the company's sales representatives, Ian Rogers received a call from GWI to pick up bid documents.
She said the bid documents were picked up, the required fee paid and the bid was put together and submitted. Rogers said he dropped off the bid at 8.30 am on the morning of the bid opening and returned at 9.30 am for the ceremony. However, he said he was invited into the room by a GWI official and told that the tender process had been changed from a public tendering process to sole sourcing. However, he said the bid was opened as per normal and he was told that the company would be contacted by GWI at a later date with further instructions. He said he was asked by his superiors to enquire whether the bid had been disqualified and whether the bond with NBIC should be terminated. The response was no in both instances.
"Our concern is if the tender process had been changed, we had a right to be informed and we would not have gone through the trouble or expense of putting together a bid. We still have the bond open and are paying interest on it," Dean said.