EUSTATIUS–Acting Government Commissioner Mervyn Stegers of the Public Entity St. Eustatius has violated the rules pertaining to the awarding of government contracts to civil servants where it concerned the renovation of Statia Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC). Also, during the home repair project after Hurricane Irma contracts were awarded to civil serva
Granting a contract to a company owned by a civil servant is not in accordance with Article 51 of the Civil Servants’ Legal Status Decree BES, State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops informed the Second Chamber by letter on Thursday. In his letter Knops informed Members of Parliament (MPs) about this case and about the measures taken.
The public entity requested 11 parties to make a bid for the renovation of SEOC. Of these 11 parties, two declined, and nine submitted quotations which were assessed on the basis of the criteria: price, quality, experience and plan of action. A selection committee advised the government commissioners and presented them with the most complete quotations and gave a positive recommendation to take the cheapest offer and the advice was followed.
Civil servant Winston Fleming, owner of Do it Right Construction, who was awarded the contract did not have access to the file in the context of his work for the island government, the state secretary said.
“The official’s company has been requested by the public entity to submit a quotation, knowing that it concerned a civil servant and the job was assigned to him by the public entity,” the state secretary explained.
By decision of July 3, 2014, it is civil servants of the Public Entity St. Eustatius forbidden to directly or indirectly trade with government departments without prior written permission from the Executive Council. It is also stipulated that no authorisation would be given if this would lead to any conflict of interest.
Article 51 of the RpaBES provides that the official is prohibited from working or providing deliveries or services that are directly or indirectly fully or partially chargeable from the government. The decree wrongly leaves room for interpretation in the awarding of contracts, the State Secretary said in his letter to Parliament.
According to Knops, Acting Commissioner Stegers had not been aware of the stipulations in Article 51 and could not revoke the contract as (preparatory) work for the project had already started.
Also, during the recovery programme after Hurricane Irma, home renovation projects were awarded to construction companies owned by civil servants. This concerns three officials of the public entity who were awarded 13 of the available 70 contracts for the renovation of homes.
Based on information provided by the island government about these 70 restored houses, Knops told Parliament that 25 of these involved expenditures below the amount of US $50,000 for which a public tender is prescribed, whereas 45 homes required extensive and more expensive repairs.
Especially in the phase immediately after the hurricanes, no tendering procedures were initiated as the project was aimed at providing quick relief to the most vulnerable people with the deployment of local entrepreneurs to also provide a boost to the local economy, Knops explained.
He said the projects were publicly announced and the contractors were invited by radio messages to participate. He said this method of tendering has not led to complaints from contractors or to legal proceedings. “The assignments are to the satisfaction of clients and residents,” Knops said.
Nevertheless, the State Secretary has asked the government commissioners to ensure that companies owned by civil servants no longer participate in public tenders and called for an inventory of all civil servants with additional activities and to map what these activities entail.
Based on an analysis and in consultation with the state secretary, the policy in respect of side-activities will be reviewed. Furthermore, the Public Entities Saba and Bonaire will be queried about their experiences with side-activities of their civil servants.
“Not to be excluded is the exceptional situation in which awarding a contract to a civil servant is unavoidable, for example in the case of scarce expertise, considering the small scale of the island. For that reason, I will check whether the existing regulation is sufficiently focused on the small scale of the islands,” the state secretary wrote.
According to data from the Chamber of Commerce, 52 construction companies are currently registered in Statia, but it is unclear whether these are all still active.
In a reaction printed elsewhere in this newspaper in full (See opinion pages), Island Council Member and Leader of the Progressive Labour Party, St. Eustatius Clyde van Putten stated that the blatant hypocrisy of the Dutch government is once again fully exposed. He also called for the immediate and full disclosure of the awarding process and technical advice to the people of Sint Eustatius.
“Just looking at the history of the Dutch government’s actions around the world, the many Dutch politicians who were prematurely forced out of office in disgrace the past few years, and the recent case of the exorbitant payments to Mr. Brons, the revelation that Mr. Stegers knowingly acted in violation of the same law he was supposedly sent to Sint Eustatius to uphold comes as no surprise,” noted van Putten.
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