Anglin says school projects due to re-start
(CNS): The minister of education has said that the school projects will be back on track shortly but has still not revealed any dates or details of the new contractors. Rolston Anglin said the Central Tenders Committee is still considering bids but he hopes to be able to make an announcement during the budget process. The projects are now way behind schedule after the original contractor, Tom Jones International, walked off the sites at Frank Sound and John Gray last year due to a row over payments. The ministry began looking for new construction managers in February and the details of those bids were recently leaked to CNS.
Hensel Phelps had scored the most points with a bid of $6.5 million but the firm has not yet been given the contract. Anglin told CNS last month that the firm, which had the winning number of points, had not been awarded the contract as that it was still up to the CTC to decide if the criteria used were correct and fair and the points awarded accurate.
CNS understands, however, that the CTC has had the bids for several weeks now and it is unclear why they have not yet made a decision on who should be awarded the job. Anglin stated that the leak had caused problems for the committee as they had not, at the time of leak, made their decision and the revelation of the points which the department had made could have undermined the process.
In accordance with the ministry’s criteria, which looks at past experience, specialist expertise as well as cost, Hensel Phelps scored the most points at 84.20 with a bid of $6.5 million, which was considerably lower than the one submitted by the consortium specially formed by a group of local contractors, which scored 78.43 points with its bid of over $8.5 million. Arch & Godfrey, McAlpine, Hadsphaltic and DECCO had created CCML as a joint venture for the sole purpose of submitting this single bid to provide services for the completion of the Clifton Hunter and John Gray High Schools.
Both school sites have been idle for more than six months following the departure of TJI last November. Hundreds of local workers were laid off as a result of the dispute with government, which is now in the courts and, with the exception of some preservation work undertaken by sub contractors Caribbean Mechanical to prevent deterioration, neither site has moved forward.
The minister said recently that he was still hopeful that the schools would be completed by June next year ready for the September 2011 school year. Speaking to Cayman 27 yesterday, Anglin said full scale construction on the campuses would resume soon.
The development on the two schools was started by the previous education minister, for which he has been severely criticized. However, Alden McLaughlin has persistently defended the need not just for the schools but a massive overhaul of the country’s education system, which he said was failing Cayman’s children. The schools were commissioned and designed against the backdrop of a complete review and modernisation of the education system and the law which was completed during McLaughlin’s time in office.
However, since taking up the role of minister for education, Anglin has delayed the implementation of the law, which was passed more than a year ago in March 2009, as he says the regulations to accompany the new law are not ready.
Category: Local News
Hope away but all evidence points to the government ALWAYS doing things inappropriately and yes they will happily screw over the good guys both expat andCaymanian to make sure they and theirs get as much of the money as possible with the timely and cost effective job completion coming in a distant 2nd. It has been proven time and time again that this is what you get when you deal with the Cayman government. The real problem with all the problems in Cayman is not that the Government is an incompetent, self serving, bloated, corrupt mess, Its that the people they represent let them lead regardless.
Why do we bother with these white elephants?
The country can’t afford to pay for these palaces never mind operate them.
Can CNS please please investigate the talk that, despite Cayman’s 4 largest construction companies making a bid, a foreign company fronted by 3 locals has been promised the contract. In fact there are ‘upset’ reliable sources (sources that are not happy) that say this is already a done deal, & have even named the 3 local partners, & it’s shocking. CNS you can delete the names but the 3 locals are XXXXXXXXX. When all is revealed we will see how much truth there is to this, but if this is true what is the difference between this & what took place with Tom Jones International, which the UDP opposition raised all kind of hell about? In fact this is FAR worse because an XXXXXXXX
bit by bit the truth is starting to come out and thread by thread the whole thing is starting to unravel. If they think Royal Watler and Turtle Farm was a scandal, wait till this one breaks
I agree wholeheartedly that it would be scandalous if a submission counting a XXXXX as a shareholder were allowed to win the work.
As I understand it, the named persons might be part of the Turner submission, not the Hensel-Phelps submission.
Even though the Turner bid was lowest, the technical evaluation does not rate it the best. Well done to the CTC if it asserting its independence and refusing to award to the lowest bid when there is a more expensive but better alternative based upon an objective points system analysis.
Construction projects are not a matter of price only. That is the lesson that ought to have been learned.
On the other hand, maybe the CTC is refusing to award because the funding for the work isn’t properly appropriated and ring fenced from general revenues. In which case, well done too!
TJI left the projects because the Ministry could not meet its contractual requirement to show them that it had the money to finish the work.
"As any fule no", one doesn’t provide goods and services to a customer that can’t show its ability to pay for them.
It’s also a fundamental common law right to stop working for someone that can’t or wont pay.
The Ministry has acted in a manner consistent with an underfunded Owner by:-.
1. insisting that the work continue without the concrete assurance of payment;
2. characterizing the contractor as "difficult" or "confrontational" or "threatening" when it was merely insisting on the ministry’s compliance with the contract;
3. its continued failure to promptly deal with the cost of change and delay caused by the Ministry.
4. bullying the contractor publicly when it refused to roll over (no pun intended) and eventually terminating the contract.
These are all warning signs to a contractor that an Owner is in financial trouble, even if one were able to dismiss from one’s mind that this time last year the Leader of Government Business (as he was then) made a public announcement that the Govt was delaying payment to contractors in favour of making civil service payroll.
The local "Dream Team" probably took these things into account and included large sums of money in its Construction Management bid for the things that they would have to provide over and above the tendered scope of work but were unlikely to get paid for under the contract.
If Turner win it, Mr. XXXXX’s involvement will no doubt smooth those future troubled waters.
That’s why its an unfair playing field.
"CNS understands, however, that the CTC has had the bids for several weeks now and it is unclear why they have not yet made a decision on who should be awarded the job."
wasnt the date for the award supposed to be the 19th April?
so that should read "CTC has had the bids for several months"
The problem is not CTC’s. The problem is with the scoring system.
Would it not be prudent to have a local person responsible for any situations that may arise. Hensel’s are a good company but are not based on the island so would it not make sense to have an Island based firm or individual?
Or spend 2 million less on Hensel Phelps and use the savings for any potential problems.
Still wondering why the lesson from last time has not been learned. Just becaue someone puts in a lower bid doesn’t mean that they can complete the project on time within the figures.
That arguement is still in the courts and undecided.
I will reserve judgement for now.
It bloody well time to deal with all the crime.
more waffle from the gov with the usual lack of specifics…..zzzzzz
cns: well done and keep up with highlighting their incompetence
We have heard this all before.
Honorable Minister Rolston Anglin stated way back in February that the schools construction would be up and running full steam soon.
The Minister said the tender package had been prepared, and that the goal was to tender and award the construction management services within 6 to 8 weeks. If the Minister held true to his word we would have had men back to work last April.
The construction management bids have been in the ministries hands for over 10 weeks now. What is the hold up?
Can you spell M O N E Y ?
The delay and the problem is, everytime they add up the scores, the company the Government wants to win keeps losing. I can’t wait to make the FOI request for the CTC minutes and records once this is all over.
You heard it – the "leak" caused them problems. This is govtspeak for now we need to do more work to justify who we are gonna award the contract to.
Plain and simple.
Open to the elements for months, how much of these projects will have to be demolished and redone?