The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

THE request for proposal (RFP) for the management of the beleaguered New Providence Landfill will be issued by the beginning of next week, Environment and Housing Minister Kenred Dorsett announced yesterday.

Mr Dorsett also dismissed assertions that the RFP process might be overtaken by the upcoming general election, and that it will be left to the next administration to decide the way forward, while speaking as a guest on the Island Luck TV show “The Real Deal” with host Ortland Bodie Jr yesterday morning.

To this, Mr Dorsett said: “I disagree with that … governments are continuous.”

Last month, Mr Dorsett told Tribune Business that a RFP was being structured, and that it would be issued “as soon as possible”.

The minister’s comments at the time represented the first indication that the government is putting the landfill management contract out to public tender via an open, structured process in which all contenders will know the rules and criteria under which they are bidding.

The Waste Resources Development Group (WRDG), a Bahamian consortium, is among those who have submitted bids to take over the landfill’s management following the most recent blaze at the dump site. A rival group also has a Bahamian component in the shape of Providence Advisors and its chief executive, Kenwood Kerr.

However, Tribune Business sources said last week that the government had yet to formally respond to bidders and notify them of its intentions and how it plans to proceed.

“The issues that we have with the dump are ones that have certainly plagued this nation for 40 to 50 years,” Mr Dorsett said yesterday. “We began an aggressive programme by bringing in commercial recycling at the landfill. We began the preparation of the remediation plan for it so that we could address the environmental degradation that is going on. That environmental remediation plan, that was approved last year by the government.

“It is forming the basis of the request for proposal that is going to be going out, I believe either the end of this week or the beginning of next week.”

Residents of Jubilee Gardens were evacuated from their homes after a massive blaze broke out on March 5 at the city dump, sending plumes of choking smoke billowing over parts of New Providence.

Three weeks later, Mr Dorsett claimed that the massive blaze was the result of thieves burning wires in search of copper.

Mr Dorsett told The Tribune at the time that while a formal assessment had not been completed, government officials discovered wires in the area where they believe the fire began, behind Epic Battery on Fire Trail Road, before spreading to the landfill.

Yesterday, Mr Dorsett admitted that the government has been challenged by the “unregulated” scrap metal market and those that operate within it, as he doubled down on his previous assertion that copper thieves were behind the blaze.

“There are scrap metal dealers who are the certified persons who can deal with established businesses who have copper,” he explained. “There is a structured programme that takes place when it comes to copper, because clearly they’re not manufacturing copper, but it does exist when you have construction and demolition ... and there are certified people to deal with it.

“Our challenge is the unregulated market and those persons who are stealing for copper who are then selling the copper to unlicensed unregulated people out there, and I don’t know how they’re exporting it because anything that’s exported should go through customs and therefore should be checked.

“But I think that notwithstanding the regulatory framework that we have there are considerable deficiencies in the programme.”

The city dump has been plagued with recurring fires for years, with the most recent fire being considered as the worst to hit the site. Renew Bahamas was engaged by the government in 2014 to manage the landfill and help address the matter.

However, Renew Bahamas pulled out of that deal last year claiming low profitability. It had previously been seeking to renegotiate its management contract and associated financial terms with the Christie administration, having revealed to Tribune Business that it had been incurring continuous, heavy losses.