NIDCO responds to TTTI

The National Infrastructure Development Company Limited (NIDCO) has responded to statements made by the TT Transparency Institute (TTTI) on the award of the $400 million contract to Kall Co for the Churchill Roosevelt Highway Extension to Manzanilla (CRHEM).

In a statement yesterday, NIDCO said it was ‘most unfortunate’ that the TTTI chose to comment on a tender and evaluation process for which it had no factual knowledge.

NIDCO has extended an invitation to the chairman of the TTTI to visit its offices today at 10 am to review the procurement process used for the tendering, evaluation and awarding of the contract to Kall Co. “NIDCO is confident in its clear and defined procurement process used for all projects, since late 2015, and particularly the process used for the tendering and awarding of the CRHEM contract.

“The systems implemented and practised by NIDCO is meticulous and fair for all contracts and tenderers. It is also inaccurate for TTTI to state that there is no procurement legislation in place as there is and NIDCO also has tender and procurement policies,” NIDCO said in its statement. In its comments, the TTTI said “issues surrounding public expenditure continue to be raised in the absence of the Public Procurement legislation being operationalised”. “The right to tender for public contracts must be balanced with the public interest for a fair and transparent process. The absence of a clear and defined process which the public can refer to leads to mistrust. In this environment issues of conflict of interest and abuse of process will thrive,” it said in a statement.

“The present concerns about the award of a $400 million contract are not new ones.

These issues will continue to trouble us until the rules at play in the award of public contracts are made clear, operationalised and enforced. TTTI is therefore of the view that full disclosure in the process followed from invitation to award is required. The public interest demands no less,” it said.