From Office of the Opposition Date: February 13, 2019

With final bids on the cruise ship and expanded cargo port facilities due at the end of next month, the Leader of the Opposition the Hon. Ezzard Miller has red-flagged a conflict between that bidding process requiring 100% financing and efforts by the Ministry of Tourism to secure supplementary funding under a separate arrangement.

A deal by Government with two major cruise lines to help finance the construction of the facility was disclosed in the Cayman Compass article dated February 7, 2019, “Cruise port petition puts dock debate on collision course.”

However, additional information to which Mr. Miller has since been privy indicates that the Ministry of Tourism has been actively negotiating with up to four additional cruise lines, seeking loans towards defraying the cost of the design, building, and maintenance of the cruise ship and expanded cargo port facilities.

According to the sources, who have spoken on condition of anonymity, it is being proposed that these loans from the cruise industry are to be repaid through rebatement of port charges, Mr. Miller said.

In response to the news of these developments, Mr. Miller contends that this parallel arrangement would effectively alter the RFP that has been issued to the three bidders on the port project.

Consequently, he has raised a number of questions, among which are why supplementary funding has become necessary and how these actions would impact the Procurement Committee’s ability to carry out its role:

• “Does this mean that the short-listed bidders are experiencing difficulty in raising financing?
• If so:
  • How would the ministry know this?
  • What are the implications of those financing issues for the bidders and their longer-term capacity to honour their contracts, and
  • How will the negotiations for and acquisition of supplementary funding impact the Procurement Committee’s evaluation of the bids?”

Mr. Miller, who also chairs the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and is therefore familiar with the requirements under the Procurement Law 2016, noted that among the principles at risk is that of “transparency,” one of the seven codes of practice defined in Schedule 1 of that law:

“Transparency
Public sector entities should ensure that there is openness and clarity on procurement policy and its delivery. All proposed procurement shall be published on the Government’s website in addition to the results of procurement.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Miller noted, in a matter of six weeks the cruise/cargo port “bidders will have concluded their financial arrangements in accordance with the ministry’s existing RFP requiring 100% financing.”

Unless there are “some rapid interventions” that will appropriately address the conflict, “the potential clash in the two seemingly concurrent processes,” Mr. Miller said, “would drastically alter the RFP, presenting a complication in the final stages of bidding that would make it impossible for the Public Procurement Committee to properly evaluate the three bids.”

Should that complication continue to its logical end, “The Public Procurement Committee would therefore be well advised to reject the bids and to require the bidding process to be re-started,” Mr. Miller said, adding: “Barring urgent adequate interventions, this is the least that should be done out of an abundance of caution to ensure that the bidding process and its outcome do not fail to meet the requirements of the Procurement Law, with all those far-reaching implications, to the ultimate detriment of the project and the people of the Cayman Islands.”

As it is now, if the parallel negotiations continue on their track, Mr. Miller said, “the issue and publication of a new RFP would seem not only unavoidable but absolutely imperative.”

Nevertheless, Mr. Miller emphasised that, while he will continue to flag these serious concerns, he remains committed to the people-initiated referendum initiative and to the belief that it will have a positive final resolution.

“The referendum drive is gaining momentum as it nears its target number of signatures,” the Leader of the Opposition said, adding that he and his colleagues in the Opposition are engaging in a final drive to push the numbers over the top.

“I am confident that members of the public will have their say on this very important national issue that will impact us irrevocably now and in the future,” he said.