ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – The Grenada government says it has told the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) that it does not favor the procurement rule, which requires international bidding for a project to be implemented on the island.
“Just last month, we fought we the CDB and told them we have carpenters and joiners in Grenada here that we want to do the job and not send the job overseas, “said Mobilization, Implementation, and Transformation Minister Andy Williams.
“They were telling us that we have to do international bidding for certain furniture for schools, and we said no, we want our people to do the job, and this is the approach we want to take,” he told a meeting at the Grenada Boys Secondary School.
The meeting was with private land owners and other service providers in the construction industry. It was intended to provide information about the government’s plans to build 500 homes for the 2023 budgeted cycle.
“We as a government believes in our people, empowering our people, and part of why we are having this consultation right here now is that when we start to build these 500 houses, we want to be able to use our people to do the job,” Williams said, justifying rejecting the international bidding process.
According to the CDB procurement rules, the objective of international competitive bidding is to provide all eligible prospective bidders with timely and adequate notification of the requirements of a recipient of CDB financing and an equal opportunity to bid for the required goods, works, and services.
Williams needed to provide in-depth information about the specific CDB project. Still, on the government of Grenada procurement website, there was a notice in the last quarter of 2022 inviting bids to supply school furniture for the Ministry of Education under the Grenada Education Enhancement Project.
The last day for bidding for the project was November 30th, 2022.
The notice explained that the government had received one million US dollars in financing from the CDB towards the cost of supply of school furniture project and intended to apply a part of the funds to cover eligible payments under the Agreement.
The notice, providing background to the project, stated that payment by CDB will be made only at the request of the Grenada government and upon approval by CDB and will be subject, in all respects, to the terms and conditions of the Loan Agreement.
The sealed bid from eligible and qualified Bidders was for procuring 800 student chairs, 800 student desks, 800 teachers’ desks; 400 executive; 400 storage cabinets, and 800 lab stools.
Meanwhile, Housing Minister, Phillip Telesford, says the Dickon Mitchell administration will seek to partner with the private sector in building the 500 homes it promised to deliver during the first year in office.
“The government of Grenada may not necessarily build homes, but we may wish to partner by putting in infrastructural work. Those of you who have large portions of land and wish to partner with us, we may enter into a joint venture for such a purpose,” he told the meeting with private land owners, contractors, and other service providers in the construction industry.
“Architects, designers, and contractors, we want to engage you because we want you to partner with us,” said Telesford, who also serves as Minister for Social Development, Community Development, and Gender Affairs.
He said the government would pilot a housing project in the parish of St John where samples of futuristic homes will be erected.
“In Marigot, or what you call Stony Gut, we have a portion of land that we want to use as a sort of testing grounds to build some sample homes, utilizing new types of building materials; Utilizing natural light from the sun, rainwater harvesting, ozone friendly materials and whatever we can lay our hands on, solar heating and lighting, whatever we can lay our hands on as a sort of sample as to what is possible in the future.
“I am sure we can build some futuristic homes, and this is where the architects come in, this is where you come in, and this is where contractors come in, to be able to build these as a sample as to what the future looks like,” he said.
Telford said that the approach adopted to construct the homes would be vital to achieving the government’s goal of building 500 homes.
“How do we partner? How do we make this happen? I can tell you that many people from the international circle have been knocking on Grenada’s doors to build homes or sell us prefab homes, to sell us building materials because they want to partner,” he said.
In his 2023 budget statement to t Parliament last December, Prime Minister Mitchell said the government is committed to delivering 500 high-quality climate-resilient Grenadian-style houses this fiscal year.
The allocation for that project is EC$2.5 million (One Ec dollar=US$0.37 cents).
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