PHILIPSBURG--There will always be controversy where people want controversy to be at, said Minister of Public Housing, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure VROMI Egbert Doran on Wednesday during the Council of Ministers’ press briefing in response to questions about the 2022-2025 District Cleaning Tendering and Awarding Process. “No particular contractor was given preference,” Doran said.
The Party for Progress (PFP) faction in Parliament believes that there is reason to believe fraud was being committed. In a March 31, letter to the Minister, signed by Member of Parliament (MP) Melissa Gumbs and MP Raeyhon Peterson, the PFP faction stated that “there are valid concerns of fraud and/or corruption related to this tendering process, similar to the concerns expressed in the Ombudsman’s 2022 Systemic Investigation Report into the garbage collection tendering process.” This statement is based on the faction members having viewed the documentation under confidentiality rules of Parliament.
“In the Public meetings handling the Country Budget 2023, it was stated by the Deputy Minister of VROMI, Minister of Finance Ardwell Irion, that the Council of Ministers approved the district cleaning tender on 16 March,” the PFP faction wrote to VROMI Minister Doran on Friday. “In the meetings, several documents, including the SOAB report for the district cleaning tender, was requested by MPs. It was communicated by the Deputy VROMI Minister that the documents would be made available “ter inzage” [for perusal, Ed.] by the Secretary General of Parliament, as they were deemed to be confidential documents.”
Attached to the SOAB report was a memo from the Acting Department Head of Infrastructure Management, the MPs noted. “After reviewing the documentation under confidentiality rules of Parliament, we believe there are valid concerns of fraud and/or corruption related to this tendering process.”
Minister Doran on Wednesday said that he had received a report from SOAB. “Without going into details, I want to say that the SOAB report is now being reviewed and that is where we are at. Not everything is straightforward, but I am confident that we can soon move ahead.”
The Minister thanked Stichting Overheidsaccountsbureau SOAB and the entire team of VROMI for all the work they put in. “It was a very tedious process, especially given that there is a limited framework, with which they had to operate. Basically, starting from scratch in terms of the processes and procedures.”
No particular contractor was given preference, Doran said. “That was definitely not the case. And it didn’t have anything to do with me, in terms of preference or advice.”
Doran went on to say that “At the end of the day, there are some points… Let me give an example. There was a case where two contractors had the same amount of points, all in all, based on quality and price. Two have, let’s say, 85 points. Then you have to make a decision. Not a clear-cut case. Most of the times we would lean towards the pricing, because that would be in the better interest of St. Maarten, of course.”
The Minister mentioned another case where a contractor had the most points, the maximum of 100 points, but the company’s price was too high. “If our budget is 1,2 million, we cannot go with a price of 2 million. That way exceeds the budget.” He concluded saying: “Indeed, this is what happened in one of the cases. So that is what happened.”
According to Minister Doran, there are “persons that are hell bent on creating controversy where there is none. So be it.”
Parliament has access to all information, said Doran. “So they can delve into it.”
Doran noticed over the last two years, he said, that “Parliament wants to work within the Ministry of VROMI and dictate the manner in which things operate. That will definitely not happen under my watch. In a leadership position, you have to make decisions. And that is what I do.”
