Hinds links contractor with private Phillipine mansion

Questions have been raised about a company called Super Industrial Services Ltd (SIS) which received a contract to rehabilitate the Siparia market, despite lacking certain requirements, and which also has done work on a certain “expensive private mansion in Phillipine.”

PNM Senator Fitzgerald Hinds, raising the issue yesterday, called on Attorney General Anand Ramlogan to probe SIS which, he said, also received a $69 million WASA contract which was later stopped by the state company.

Speaking in yesterday’s Senate budget debate, Hinds added: “This company is well known to the Government, very well-known. They are everywhere in the state sector since 2010 and they continue to do business with the occupants of this certain expensive private mansion at Phillipine.”  

Hinds also called on AG Ramlogan to probe allegations, including racism, against Agricultural  Development Bank chairman Rudy Maharaja. He said Maharaja had a company that does all of ABD printing. AG Ramlogan told Hinds: “Pas (the information) man...”  

On the Siparia market project, Hinds said Palo Secor Enterprises Ltd had three bidders, including SIS. He said one company, TM, was rated “fair” by the evaluating team. Another, Bull Fabricators, was rated “poor.” Hinds said SIS was found by the team to have “fluctuating insolvency between 2006 and 2009.” Financial data also suggested SIS was solvent in 2010 but no data suggested why.

He said SIS failed to meet minimum scores for the technical approach and did not have the minimum critical requirements for the project. Hinds said the evaluating team found all bidders failed to present conditions requested by the request for proposals. He said the evaluating team was replaced by another which allowed SIS to fix the flaws the first team found.

Hinds said the PELL had estimated the market project at $36 million. ”But the board of  directors of PELL granted the contract to SIS for $9 million,” Hinds said. He said he received reports that when SIS was doing work at the “certain private mansion in Phillipine” the logo of the company’s truck was blanked out. “They are hiding the fact they were doing work at this certain well-known expensive mansion in Phillipine,” he added.

Saying he had the names of the SIS directors, Hinds dropped hints: “Saran and Lola. He said SIS also had a WASA contract. He said SIS bid $65 million for the contract but got it for $69 million. “It took acting WASA CEO Diane Abdool to stop the project,” Hinds added.

Environment and Water Resources Minister Ganga Singh then interrupted Hinds to say he had asked for a report on the issue and WASA’s board had indicated there was “cyber interference in the process.”

On the ADB issue, Hinds said: “Rudy Maharaj (ADB chairman) is involved in operational matters in the bank, interviewing staff alone, receiving resumes, behaving like an executive chairman, short-listing people for interviews, dictating things to HR managers and loan managers about loans in the ADB. Poor governance. 

“All printing for the bank is done by a printery owned by the chairman, via other companies, one of which is Top Design.” He said for a family day, which was cancelled, Top Design took $35,000 from ADB. Hinds said when ADB budgeted for executive expenditure of $200,000 for a product launch, Maharaj oversaw costs of $600,000. He said ADB’s Independence decorations for 2012 cost $400,000 when ADB had budgeted for $40,000.