Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar on Tuesday fired former Planning Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs Minister Mary King, regarding "improper action" in a contract awarded from the Planning Ministry to a King family firm named Ixanos Ltd. Following is the statement of the ministry's permanent secretary Juliana Boodram-John to the Attorney General on the issue.
Senator the Honourable Anand Ramlogan
Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General,
Cabildo Chambers,
St Vincent Street,
Port-of-Spain.
Dear Sir,
Statement, re the design, hosting and establishment of a Website for the Ministry of Planning Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs:
I assumed duty as the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Planning Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs on June 24, 2010. One of the first exercises that was undertaken was to give the new ministry a brand and an identity. The ministry shared the Web site with the former ministry, now Housing and the Environment. The establishment of a website for the ministry was therefore a priority. The ministry invited tenders for the establishment of the website in September 2010.
Before the opening of the bids, the honourable minister indicated to me that she wanted to be the chair of the Tenders Committee to evaluate the bids. I told her that this is not the protocol that is normally followed and that ministers are not supposed to be involved in this activity.
The minister became very angry with me and demanded to know why this could not be done and insisted that I show her the regulations that would debar her from being the chair.I consulted with the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Allison Lewis to find out if there were any regulations to prevent the minister from performing this role. However, we both concurred that in order to protect the minister's integrity, I would try to discourage her from participating in any tendering process. I then assured the minister that the process would be fair and that senior personnel would be put on the evaluation team. The minister agreed that she would not be the chair. The team comprised the deputy permanent secretary, Joseph Howard, the senior legal officer, Andrea Julien, the IT manager, Deosaran Bisnath and Ephraim Serrette who is on contract but who is an auditor by training and worked in the Auditor General Department for a number of years.
I felt this team of high-ranking public officers possessed the necessary skills and competency, as well as authority to handle this exercise. The minister agreed to this team but insisted that I also include as part of the team her personal assistant who is an engineer by training. I cautioned the minister about including her personal staff but she said that she was advised by the Cabinet that all tendering should have her representative present. The opening of the tender box was scheduled for October 1 2010 and the minister indicated that since this was the first opening of a tender for the ministry she wanted to be present. I told her it was not necessary for her to be present but she said she would like to be there to ensure that everything was in order. I did not think anything strange of this.
On the day of the opening, I asked members of staff to be present to witness the opening. I had a member of staff open the envelopes and another record all the bids.The first bid had no VAT registration or BIR registration and I indicated to the minister that it should be disqualified but she said that this was "small money" and therefore we should not disqualify anyone. Not wanting to appear to have a disagreement with the minister in public, I agreed. All bids were recorded and the documents passed to the chair of the evaluation team, Joseph Howard. The minister did not indicate to me that she had any interest in any of the companies bidding. The minister held regular meetings with the evaluation team to find out their progress. I did not think it strange because she was in the habit of wanting to know everything taking place in the ministry. She was always more interested in the operational details of the ministry rather than the strategic direction. At one meeting, I recall the minister wishing to know which were the short- listed companies.
At another meeting she discussed the criteria to be used for final selection. It should be noted that the IT manager, Deosaran Bisnath took the lead in the selection process and requested members of the evaluation team to submit their scoresheets to him by noon on Friday October 8. Bisnath collated all the scores, including his own. At the finalisation of the evaluation, the IT manager informed me that the process was completed and that a contract needed to be drawn up. I requested the senior legal officer to draft a contract. The contract was signed on November 3, 2010 by the acting permanent secretary, Joseph Howard. I was out of the country on official business. Some time in January 2011, a clerical officer of the accounts department came to me and enquired of me whether I was aware that the contract that was awarded for the Web site was for the minister's husband and son's company.
I was shocked and enquired what proof there was of this, to which he replied that the minister's husband had submitted a document to verify the telephone number was registered in his name and that to which, she was authorised to claim the telephone bill. He had also written to request Keron Gopaul, an employee of the company, IXanos, to sign on behalf of the company. Officers of the Accounts Department had seen the signature and recognised it as the same. I requested the file and called the deputy permanent secretary, Mr Howard and the senior legal officer, Ms Julien, to enquire if they knew of this. Howard indicated he knew but after the signing, and Julien indicated she did not know at that point.
I called Bisnath separately and he indicated that he knew all along but did not see anything wrong with the process.
I spoke to Julien as to what we should do about it. We discovered that a downpayment of fifty per cent was already made and that the website was supposed to be completed in three months. I decided to not to approach the minister since half of the contract sum was already paid and also because it was a short contract. I did not approach the minister or tell her what I discovered because I felt it would have caused strained relations with both of us. In addition, cognisant of the minister's role in Transparency International, I felt that she was aware of conflict of interest and therefore I believed that the best course of action was to have the contract completed as early as possible and avoid any further business with this company. Subsequently, Serrette, on two occasions, printed e-mails he received from Stephen King seeking to solicit new work from the ministry.
I advised that Mr King should be told that the ministry would be inviting tenders for all future works. We had intended to update the Web sites of three other divisions of the ministry, i.e. the Town and Country Planning Division, the Central Statistics Division and the National Transformation Unit. The former two divisions were larger than the core ministry. When the contract with IXanos was completed I requested Bisnath to do a checklist for me to verify that all that was supposed to be done was actually done.He assured me this was so but indicated that we should get into a Service Level Agreement with IXanos to maintain the site. He submitted a copy of the agreement from IXanos. I indicated I was not prepared to consider this.I received an e-mail from Stephen King indicating he wanted to come in to "chat" about it as it appeared that I did not understand what it was about. I did not entertain this request.
As part of the contract, the company was supposed to facilitate training, some of which has taken place. Stephen King launched the training and the staff got to know him, through these training sessions. At this point in time everyone in the IT Department, as well as accounts and some of the professional staff who took part in the training, became aware of the relation of Stephen King with the minister and the ownership of the company, IXanos. On Friday May 6, I had to attend the funeral of my uncle at the Mosquito Creek and did not go to work. I got a call from the office that Bisnath had told staff that on the weekend, the Express Newspapers would publish something on this matter. I promptly called Bisnath to find out what he knew. He told me he had friends in the media who told him that this story would be coming out this weekend.
During the day the staff informed me that the reporter, Ms Maharaj, was calling for me, Ms Julien and Mr. Serrette. No one at the office gave my mobile number to the reporter. Mr Howard called me about 5 pm to inform me that the reporter had spoken to him and had asked him how to spell my name. I have never spoken to any reporter on this matter, nor have I leaked any information to anyone, including the media. To this day I have not even spoken or communicated to the minister on this matter. Supporting documents from Bisnath to the Evaluation Committee and e-mails from Stephen King to Serrette and myself are attached.
Juliana Johan-Boodram,
Permanent Secretary (Ag),
Ministry of Planning Economic and Social Restructuring and Gender Affairs,
May 10, 2011