The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

A NEW management firm for the New Providence Landfill has been selected, Environment and Housing Minister Romauld Ferreira announced yesterday.

However, it could be awhile before pertinent details are made public.

The minister yesterday declined to reveal the selected firm or when this company would enter into a contractual agreement. He could not tell reporters how much the contract would be worth, saying the cost has yet to be determined.

He could only confirm the firm was Bahamian operated and the new agreement, once entered into, would be good for more than five years.

He indicated that most of the details were dependent on Cabinet conclusions.

“We submitted all of the paper work to Cabinet for deliberation and it was decided upon,” Mr Ferreira said before yesterday morning’s Cabinet meeting. “We are just concluding the final paper work and then thereafter we’ll pursue the contractual agreement and announce the name of the entity.

“The cost has not been determined yet because the government hasn’t yet entered into a contract,” he also said.

He said the arrangement had not yet been entered into because the selection process had just been completed.

Asked if there was a timeline for completion, he said this too was based on Cabinet deliberations.

Once this happens, Mr Ferreira said the government would then enter into contractual negotiations to see how the best agreement could be reached.

Previously, the minister said of the seven bidders who qualified for the request for proposals, four firms responded and paid the required registration fee.

These included Bahamas WTP Ltd; Bahamas Waste; Providence Advisors and the Waste Resources Development Group; and APAPA International (Nassau). APAPA International’s submission was received after the closing date of April 9 at 4pm, resulting in its bid being summarily rejected by the Tenders Board.

Seventeen bidders initially submitted expressions of interest to the government for the landfill.

“Government wants to see generational change. Let’s be real here this has been a long-time issue that’s been going on at the New Providence Sanitary Landfill so we want to see the deconstruction, remediation and proper operation and management of the New Providence Sanitary Landfill to the extent that fire incidents minimised if not at all,” he said yesterday.

During his contribution to the 2018-2019 budget debate earlier this month, the minister said the government allocated just over $1.3m towards entering into an agreement with the selected bidder.

“It is our heartfelt desire that the improvements soon to be implemented will address once and for all the ongoing concerns that have made the landfill a serious national priority,” he said at the time.

Last fall, the government issued an expression of interest in a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the pre-qualification of a firm to manage and operate the landfill.

The Minnis administration, upon taking office last May, cancelled the landfill tender process initiated by the former Christie administration just weeks before that government was voted out.

That RFP attracted two bids, one of which was from the 10-strong Bahamian consortium, Waste Resources Development Group, and its financial partner, Providence Advisors.

Renew Bahamas, the last firm to manage the landfill, withdrew services in October 2016 amid several disagreements with the former government.

The Department of Environmental Health Services subsequently took over operations.