A former Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) executive, a board member and a senior official have been fingered in the bid-rigging plot surrounding a $70 million maintenance contract. The information is the latest to surface as investigations into the scrapping of contract WTC 179/2011 continue. The senior official is alleged to have used his position to intimidate evaluation team members to vote against TOSL Engineering Ltd.
An insider said: "When the first evaluation report was scrapped, the senior official telephoned the evaluation team member of the second team, insisting he voted against TOSL. "He indicated that his vote was one out of five votes but the senior official said a former executive who also sat on the first evaluation team will break the deadlock. "The worker felt compelled because of his seniority and as a result voted as directed."
Investigations reveal the senior official, who was also a former manager of WASA, left the authority four years ago after his management skills came into question. However, he was rehired recently under former WASA CEO Ganga Singh, who was recently appointed as the line minister for the authority. Yesterday, Singh told the T&T Guardian he had ordered an immediate investigation into the bid-rigging claims made by WASA chairman Indar Maharaj and was expecting a report on his desk by next week.
T&T Guardian further learned TOSL has issued a pre-action protocol letter against WASA, challenging the decision to scrap the award of the multi-million contract. Maharaj claimed the evaluation process was compromised. But TOSL is contending that officials at WASA had a role to play in manipulating the process, based on the draft report from the first evaluation team.
The report, which was obtained by the T&T Guardian, said TOSL was awarded the contract for $65,311,338.25 for maintenance works at the Caroni, North Oropouche, Navet and Arena pumping station. According to the report TOSL topped the evaluation criteria ahead of its competitor, Super Industrial Services (SIS). In the evaluation, TOSL scored 54.99 per cent and SIS 45.01 per cent.
However, the senior official ordered the report should be scrapped and a second evaluation committee set up. The second team favoured SIS and the company was awarded the job for $69,027,089.45. A review of the documents found the second evaluation team failed to adhere to the analytic hierarchy process that formed part of the selection process.