The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamian consortium that bid on the New Providence landfill management contract yesterday urged the new Government to assess its proposal before launching a new tender process.

Ginny McKinney, principal of Wastenot, told Tribune Business that she and other members of the 10-strong Waste Resources Development Group (WRDG) were hoping they could at least discuss the contents of their bid with the Minnis administration given the time and money invested in it.

Disclosing that she, personally, had submitted five landfill-related proposals that never received a response from any administration, Ms McKinney told Tribune Business: “We don’t want a bye because we’re Bahamian; we’re not asking to be accepted. We’re asking for our proposal to be looked at.”

WRDG, which has partnered with Providence Advisors, the Bahamian investment house, was one of two bids - the other being foreign - to respond to the former Christie administration’s eight-day Request for Proposal (RFP) for a private sector manager for the New Providence landfill.

However, WRDG heard nothing from the Government after the bids were opened at the Ministry of Finance, until it was announced over the holiday weekend that the Minnis administration is considering launching a new RFP or bidding process.

The move was unveiled jointly by Romauld Ferreira, minister of the environment, and Dr Duane Sands, minister of health, when they released the Pan American Health Organisation’s (PAHO) initial report on the landfill and its potential health and environmental impacts.

Apart from enhancing security and training, and providing the necessary fire-fighting equipment, the Ministers said a study of Grand Bahama’s landfill would be undertaken to help develop a plan for New Providence’s equivalent.

“Once this plan has been agreed, a new Request for Proposal for the management of the landfill will be issued,” their statement read. This made no mention of the existing RFP, and whether it would be cancelled or continued.

Mr Ferreira could not be reached yesterday, while Dr Sands declined to comment.

However, a government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that while the two Ministers had “hinted” at a new RFP, the decision was not yet confirmed or ‘set in stone’.

They added that the new government was still trying to determine the legalities and details of its predecessor’s landfill RFP, including how far the process had progressed; its terms and conditions; and whether it was binding on the Minnis administration.

The Government was also said to be assessing the $10,000 deposit paid by bid participants under the former Christie administration, and whether more compensation than just refunding these sums is required if the process is cancelled.

The Christie administration committed in the Baha Mar Heads of Agreement to resolve the landfill’s woes by year-end, or otherwise new owners, Chow Tai Fook Enterprises (CTFE), would be released from their performance obligations. The Government source said this, and other potential impacts to tourism and the Baha Mar deal’s closing, were also being examined by the new administration.

Ms McKinney, meanwhile, said WRDG and its members were hoping to arrange a meeting with Mr Ferreira this week to discuss their proposal and the existing RFP’s fate.

Arguing that the Government did not have to ‘reinvent the wheel’, she said: “We’ll strongly endorse our proposal. It’s yet more money that we’ve all had to pay to get it done, and we’ll see what his response is.

“Honestly, talk about going round and round. We all know all of the problems. I would find it amazing if the Minister says they’re not going to look at our proposal. I’m hoping against hope that he’ll say it got lost in the transition shuffle, and now that’s over we’ll look at it again and call you in to discuss it.”

Ms McKinney said that despite being involved with multiple landfill proposals over the past decade, “never, ever” had she and her associated been invited to discuss the submissions with the Government’s technical team to find out what the latter wanted and be given an opportunity to correct deficiencies.

“We’ve never sat down with anybody; we’ve just been told: ‘No’,” she told Tribune Business. “I hold out great hope for this administration. We don’t want a bye because we’re a Bahamian group. We want our proposal to be looked at, discussed, questions asked and determine the approach the Government wants to take.

“We’re not asking that it gets accepted; we’re asking that it be looked at. It’s such a critical thing, and any day that landfill could ignite again. The garbage is again being left uncovered, larger amounts than it should be. I don’t know why. There’s no recycling happening. All the things that need to happen are not happening.”

Ms McKinney continued: “At least look at what you have in hand and see if it answers all the bases. Read the former government’s RFP to understand what we’re being asked to respond to and if that’s enough.

“Our guys literally worked 18 hour days. They crammed a month’s worth of stuff into those eight days. Hope springs eternal but it’s discouraging, especially with the landfill being such a dangerous thing for people living around it.”

Ms McKinney said the WRDG consortium had no problem being judged against performance benchmarks should they be granted the New Providence landfill’s management, agreeing that failure to deliver should cost it the contract.

“The main thing about Freeport is that it’s privately run and privately managed. Therein lies the difference,” she added of the Ministers’ reference to Freeport. “I’m not trying to smear anyone in the public sector, but in the private sector you have to perform or be swept away.

“You do things, and are not constrained in the same way that the Department of Environmental Health Services is, having to put in for fill, put in for trucking, putting in for machinery. Those are all priced into our bid.”

The Christie administration’s Heads of Agreement with Baha Mar’s owner state: “The Government acknowledges, and will undertake to ensure, that the environment for the guests of the resort is pleasant and enjoyable.

“The parties recognise that the Government shall commence and diligently purse remediation, and improve operation and management of the Harrold Road landfill.”

Year-end 2017 is given as the date by which the Government must “address the foregoing concerns”.

The landfill heads the Government’s ‘infrastructure improvements’ commitments to CTFE and Baha Mar, which probably explains the Christie administration’s haste to initiate the Request for Proposal (RFP) and give bidders just eight days to submit detailed management and remediation plans.

Tribune Business understands that the Government had been coming under pressure from not just CTFE and Baha Mar, but also the Albany developers, to address the landfill’s envrionmental and health hazards, which threaten to undermine the experience for their visitors and residents.