EFCL’S $900M MAN

The Parliament’s Joint Select Committee (JSC) on State enterprises heard details yesterday of one man being given 58 contracts by the Education Facilities Company Ltd (EFCL), worth a mind-boggling $900 million.

The contractor is currently in litigation with the EFCL for payment of this sum while an auditing firm which was hired by the company is now itself being investigated. At present, the EFCL has been sued for $1.2 billion by 20 contractors including the lone benefactor of $900 million worth in contracts.

These startling revelations were given by EFCL chairman Ricardo Vasquez before the JSC, which held its third hearing into the operations of the company, at the Office of the Parliament. Claims by contractors against the EFCL include those for work that was suspended, while others are for work that was incomplete but full payment was demanded.

Some jobs never got started, Vasquez said, and in some cases contractors are on the site without working but are still billing the company. Asked how it is one person could be granted 58 contracts, both Vasquez and EFCL Ag General Manager Denis Cox could not provide an answer. Asked to provide this contractor’s name, the sums for each of the 58 contracts and the period in which these contracts were awarded, the EFCL officials were not forthcoming. They were then asked by the JSC to provide details in writing.

Vasquez said most of the contracts were inherited by the new board which he now heads. He does know what the procurement policy was then and how contracts were awarded. It was not the practice to award one person so many contracts, Vasquez said, hence the reason there were so much controversies and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) had to step in to do a validation.

“That practice no longer exists,” Vasquez said. Before a contract is awarded, the EFCL has to get approval from the Ministry of Education. JSC member Wade Mark noted that PWC seems to be the preferred auditor of choice, having been given six contracts between September 1, 2016 to March 13, 2017, at a cost of over $3.1 million.

Cox said when he took office at the EFCL, several audits were ongoing. Cox said he saw a lot of documents, but there was no evidence that advertisements were placed for open bidding and concluded that PWC was selected through the sole selective process. The EFCL is to provide to the JSC in writing, the criteria used to select PWC.

The JSC also heard yesterday that a previous EFCL board under the then chairmanship of Arnold Piggott – a former PNM Government Minister – overstepped their boundaries and interfered with the day to day operations of the company. This allegation was contained in a letter written in October 2016, by Cox, to one the Education Ministry’s four permanent secretaries. The letter was not meant for public consumption.

The letter addressed situations, Permanent Secretary Suzette Lee Sing testified yesterday, in which the Piggott-led board encroached on the responsibilities of staff at the EFCL. That board, the JSC heard, approved unqualified personnel for appointment, conducted improprieties in the procurement process and, “there were situations where board members were abusing resources of the EFCL and using resources for personal purposes.”

The matters raised, she said, were sent in a letter to the Minister of Finance Colm Imbert, the afternoon she (Lee Sing) received it. The issues were raised with the minister.

The matter was investigated by the ministry’s Central Audit Committee which is in the process of finalising its report, Lee Sing said.

Noting that the allegations were serious, JSC chairman Small said the committee received many documentation showing, “some unusual occurrences”, such as the speed with which the board approved tenders in a day while others took months. “These are some of the things committee are trying to get to the bottom of,” Small said.