Govt goes to Privy Council to avoid $m Novo bill

GOVERNMENT has applied to the Privy Council in an attempt to avoid an Appeal Court ruling ordering the State to pay Novo Technologies $21 million for unpaid bills related to a Ministry of Social Development contract for the biometric Smart Card System.

The State lost its appeal in February when Appeal Court judges Peter Jamadar, Andre Des Vignes and Peter Rajkumar agreed with High Court judge Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell’s 2018 ruling that the government owed Novo $5,455,149.05 and an additional $21, 484,761.65. The Appeal Court did, however, order review of the $21,484,761.65 value. That evaluation is still pending.

The contract, first signed in 2013 between Novo, the Ministry (on behalf of the then-People’s Partnership government) and Novo’s partners, Nagraid SA and Infinity Financial Engineering Ltd (INN Consortium), was for the supply, delivery, implementation, operation and maintenance of an Integrated Multi Application Biometric Smart Card System. The contract, according to the judgement, was worth US$5,386,819.33 and expired on or around October 15, 2015.

In 2015 the current administration requested that Novo continue to work until another contract was negotiated and signed. Novo continued working until June 27, 2016, when “the Ministry unilaterally terminated said services by giving 3 days’ notice,” the judgement read. Novo, through its lawyers Keith Scotland and Jacqueline Chang, successfully submitted that the Government asked Novo to continue work and to send the invoices for payment after the contract expired. The Government was represented by Keisha Prosper and Leslie Almarales. Using the same pay scheme as the original contract, Novo submitted invoices to be paid. The company’s lawsuit sought to recover monies owed for work done during the period of the contract and for work done between October 2015 and June 2016.

In her ruling, Donaldson-Honeywell said the Government “fully admitted” that Novo was owed $5,455,149.05, representing unpaid bills during the contractual period. The claim of $21,484,761.65 was for the period October 2015 to June 2016. The Judge also pointed out that the Government during the trial, admitted to owing Novo for the period when it was not under a contractual agreement.

“In the face of a plethora of admissions by the defendant, the claimant still presented the evidence of four witnesses to support every aspect of its pleaded case. The claimant’s witnesses withstood cross-examination. On the other hand the sole witness for the defendant, acting chief technical officer Vijay Gangapersad, supported the claimant’s case by and large. He agreed that it was unconscionable for the defendant to have requested that the claimant continue work at the end of the first agreement, to also ask for invoices to be submitted and not pay for the services” she ruled.

In the February 4 Appeal Court ruling, the judges and the State, through its attorneys, Senior Counsel Douglas Mendes and Ricki Harnanan, agreed Novo was owed $5.4 million. The State queried the $21.3 million, which was thus reverted to Donaldson-Honeywell for review. The State is currently awaiting word from the Privy Council on if their application to appeal the Appeal Court judges’ decision to award Novo the $21.3 million has been granted. They filed the application in April. Since the money is being evaluated, the Government applied to have Donaldson-Honeywell hold her hand as they await the Privy Council’s decision. She declined the request.

Sunday Newsday reached out to Novo CEO Glen Ramdhanie on the judgements. He declined to comment citing the fact that the matter was before the court.

Novo has also provided the airport passport scanner kiosks, after being awarded a seven-year US$43 million contract with the Airports Authority (AATT) in December 2017. In May, Cabinet appointed retired judge Rolston Nelson to investigate how that contract was awarded because it appeared to have not followed usual procurement procedures. The terms of the contract were also queried. Nelson has two months to deliver his findings.