MIDH Holds Workshop on Procurement Procedures

Today, representatives from the Ministry of Infrastructure Development held a workshop with officials from the Inter-American Development Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, and other international financial institutions to discuss the procurement processes they must follow. The ministry invited the media to share this information. As we learned, there’s a specific procurement methodology in place, whether it’s for bidding on a contract to repair a bridge or road, or for procuring equipment for infrastructural projects. News Five’s Marion Ali stopped by and filed this report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

Major infrastructure projects like the Haulover Bridge are built to last for decades, but to make sure we get our money’s worth, there are crucial steps that need to be followed to guarantee top-notch quality. Today’s MIDH workshop aimed to look at these types of issues.

 

Julius Espat, Minister of Infrastructure Development, Housing

“The design has to be properly done, so that’s one phase. If you have a good design, more than likely you’ll have a good end product. So, the design phase is very important.  The contractor has to be a contractor of experience that has done the work well over time. And then you have your warranty period, where if there’s – some people call it the fixed liability period – there is a time, normally it’s six months, one year, that you can make sure that the contractor takes care of any problem that happens within the contract.”

 

Douglas Fraser, Head of Procurement, C.D.B.

“Contracts that are high risk, high value, they actually come to the bank for our review and no objection. So, we are intricately part of that process.”

 

Quality of work is just one piece of the puzzle that lending institutions consider when their partners enter contracts. How contracts are awarded is another crucial aspect. Douglas Fraser, Head of Procurement for the Caribbean Development Bank, says that concerns can be formally lodged if there’s any suspicion of foul play in the awarding of contracts.

 

Douglas Fraser

“We have a complaints process that’s hardwired into our framework. The complaints escalate first of all to the government here and then they can be escalated to the bank. And we have an independent office of integrity, compliance and accountability that deals with any of the – as you put it – hanky-panky or integrity issues.”

 

Marion Ali

And are there penalties?

 

Douglas Fraser

“There are indeed. If an entity has failed to fall foul of the integrity framework, the procurement procedures of the bank, our independent office of integrity, accountability and compliance can actually debar them from taking part in future processes. So, there are real teeth there. and consequences. Um, for integrity violations.”

 

The Minister of Infrastructure Development and Housing, Julius Espat, explained that today’s workshop was designed to help the public better understand the processes involved. He mentioned that international lending agencies often have such high standards that they had to find creative ways to involve Belizean companies.

 

Julius Espat 

“If the project is in the millions – if it’s a large project, then they will request financial backing to say, all right, you have enough money to be able to do this project. Then they will ask you your experience, how many of these types of projects have you done in the last five to 10 years? And then they’ll ask you for your technical backup. Do you have the qualified personnel to be able to execute a project of this time?  If they elevate those requirements too high, then Belize companies will not be able to participate. So, we said all right, after we tried everything, what can we do now so that Belizean companies can participate if you are saying the level is so high? Then we found out that you can partner. So Belizean companies can partner with – maybe a technical Belizean company can partner with a financing group; or an international group that has the financial backing. So that partnership allows a Belizean company to participate, or two Belizean companies; one that’s strong in the financing aspect of it; one that’s strong in the experience and in the technical aspect of it can join together.”

 

Espat emphasized that the ministry stays transparent with its procurements because that’s what they are held accountable for.

 

Julius Espat

“If you analyze the process and you follow it and you understand it, then you will realize in which direction that the ministry is going. The ministry basically, when it follows international procurement methodology, we follow a guideline that the international financial institutions provide.”

 

Espat explains that after the ministry meets the high standards set by international partners, it still needs to get major contracts approved by the House of Representatives before moving forward.

 

Julius Espat

“Under our constitution that it has to be done, and so apart from this, when we’ve already fulfilled the requirements of the international financial institutions, then we have to then take it to the Ministry of Finance. The Ministry of Finance does their own evaluation and then they send back to us a no objection. Then from there, we have to take it to the Contractor General. And so the Contractor General’s office has to go through that whole process from that lens. Once the Contractor General sends back a no objection, then we send it back to Parliament and we table it if it’s above five million dollars, and so that is stable into the House.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.