Minister of Infrastructure Arden McLean has defended the award of a contract to sell scrap metal to an overseas company.
In Legislative Assembly Monday Mr. McLean noted that Cayman Net News had written news stories and editorials raising concerns about the award of the contract to remove scrap metals from the George Town Landfill for the purpose of selling it overseas.
‘The self-styled chief executive, publisher and editor-in-chief of Cayman Net News has, in his questionable wisdom, and no doubt coloured by his own past, seen it fit to label this transparent and equitable process a scandal,’ he said.
Among the concerns raised by the Cayman Net News coverage was why the winning bidder, Matrix International, had not yet begun the collection of the metals even though the Central Tenders Committee agreed to the recommendations to award the contract to it on 15 December 2006.
‘Firstly, I must make it clear that no contract has yet been signed,’ Mr. McLean said, explaining that there were some due-diligence procedures to be completed first.
‘These pertain to certain aspects of the contract clauses and bonding and, contrary to what the [Cayman Net News] editorials allege, are standard and required activities prior to the signing of any major commercial contract, no matter whom the party.’
Giving some background on the matter, Mr. McLean explained that representatives of Matrix expressed an interest in removing the scrap metal from the Cayman Islands in July last year. At the invitation of the Department of Environmental Health, representatives of Matrix toured the landfill and made an informal offer of paying the government $600,000 for the rights to remove it.
Mr. McLean said he told the Matrix representatives that any contract for the sale of public assets would have to be done via public tender.
The bid was first advertised on 6 November 2006 and closed on 24 November 2006. In addition to completing and signing the bid form, each potential bidder was required to submit a qualification statement and a copy of valid insurance coverage and send their bid directly to the Central Tenders Committee.
Three bids were received, including that of Matrix and a Caymanian company called Cemax Limited.
‘Matrix International submitted all the required documents and had a combination of the highest price offered – $1,250,000 – as well as demonstrated the best knowledge of the processes necessary to complete the project,’ said Mr. McLean.
Cemax offered $1.2 million, $50,000 less than Matrix.
‘Cemax Limited, however, did not provide the qualification statement nor did they provide a copy of their insurance coverage. In fact, the only item submitted by Cemax was a one-page bid form.
‘Given the absence of any other information about Cemax, it was, I believe, literally impossible for anyone to properly assess their technical or financial competencies for this undertaking.’
Mr. McLean said he was surprised by ‘the unfounded and malicious allegations and other aspersions’ in Cayman Net News concerning the matter.
‘It is also ironic that the editorial would urge that if there is any doubt about the qualifications of a particular bidder, no bid should be accepted at the outset,’ he said. ‘Using such a yardstick would have caused the Cemax bid to be rejected outright and it would not have even been scored because of the non-submission of a qualification statement.’
Mr. McLean said nothing in the procedures followed by the Ministry of Infrastructure or the Central Tenders Committee suggested that local firms were unfairly treated.
‘I… would have preferred to see a well-established local firm engaged in the removal of the scrap metals from the landfill,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately… the one local company that submitted a bid did not comply with the requirements of the tender.’
Mr. McLean said it was sensational journalism that called a fair and equitable process a scandal.
‘The editorial of the Net News of March 2nd goes on to question whether this contract is insanity or something more sinister,’ he said. ‘I have never had reason to explore the practical interpretations of the word sinister and it is unfair to me or any other member of this PPM Government to be measured by the behaviours and past of others.
‘Fortunately… Caymanians are of good memory and I will leave them to be the judge of who is of sinister motives.’
Mr. McLean never referred to Net News publisher Desmond Seales by name, only by his title.
Instead of seeing the benefit of receiving substantial payment for waste material, Mr. McLean said the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Net News had ‘chosen to mislead the public and question my integrity, as well as that of the members of the public services’.
‘The publisher and editor-in-chief must refrain from measuring the corns of others by his bushels.’
Mr. McLean said he hoped the matter was cleared up now and that all the conjecture, speculation and rumours would cease.
‘I also wish Cayman Net News had contacted me for the facts before both reporting and editorialising based on hearsay and innuendo.’
Mr. McLean said he was confident that the country would receive value for money with the Matrix contract and that he still expected the majority of the loose scrap metal to be removed by the start of the hurricane season in June.
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