Gonsalves said he was not asking the CDB to undo their declaration of misprocurement and he doesn’t want any bad relationship with the bank or its president, Dr. Warren Smith, adding that there was mutual respect.
“I ask that question though, to him: do you think the official at the CDB would have acted so precipitately and not pay the courtesy to call to the chair of the tenders board in Jamaica, Trinidad or Barbados?”
He said Smith had indicated “to me he didn’t think that would make a difference. I say, unfortunately I think different.
“I don’t see a CDB official misprocuring without talking to the chairman of the Tenders Board where the procurement is done under the regulations of the particular country,” Gonsalves said, adding that he had infused in many regional institutions an anti-small island bias by some officials.
“You have had it in West Indies cricket for a long time and even now. You have selectors telling you or coaches…I have heard that they have said, ‘Well you see in the Windward Islands and St. Vincent, is bush cricket they play.’
Gonsalves acknowledged that he cannot prove that there is an anti-small island bias in the CDB.
“But I feel it in my bones from my long years of experience that if it were a procurement agency of Jamaica, of Trinidad and Tobago, or Barbados, in the absence of fraud or corruption, they would have called the head of the tenders board.”
Gonsalves said he is not saying that the person who declared the misprocurement has this anti-small island bias.
“But I am looking for explanation, that’s why I say I pose the question, was it done deliberately or recklessly in not asking the chairman of the Tenders Board. But this is a standing caution to all entities, regional or international dealing with his government; it must deal with it with respect, and with our institutions.
“If we made a mistake, we will acknowledge it and the president of the CDB said they would acknowledge their mistakes too. Doesn’t mean they will acknowledge their mistakes publicly. They don’t have to do that. They could acknowledge it internally.”
Earlier this month the CDB said that it had found no evidence of “fraud or corruption in declaring the misprocurement” in the project.
In a statement issued following talks with Finance Minister Camillo Gonsalves, the CDB said it declared misprocurement “as the procurement process was determined, on review, to be not in accordance with the bank’s procurement guidelines”.
Smith and a team from the bank, met in Kingstown recently with the Gonsalves, and other representatives of the Government and the statement said Smith highlighted the strong partnership with St Vincent and the Grenadines since the bank commenced its operations almost 50 years ago.
The CDB declared misprocurement after it had given a letter of no objection for the award of the contract to the local firm, Reliable Construction Service Ltd.
However, Bally and Bally Investments, one of the unsuccessful tenderers complained directly to the bank, after the Ministry of Transport and Works in Kingstown said that a second review it requested of the IBI Group, the consultants, also recommended that the contract be awarded to Reliable Construction.
The CDB said it declared misprocurement because Reliable Construction did not have the required financial information, access to financial resources, or specific experience.
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Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock! “Why is there an anti-small island bias in the CDB!” – The Comrade!
Why have small island companies who make proposals on CDB initiatives been shut out of Caribbean Development would be this mere voice in the wilderness question!
Inherent in the Comrades question is the answer that some People of African Descent, Garifuna and Rastas would say that there is no such thing as “Caribbeans” because there are many different types of Caribbean People and all Caribbeans are not equal! They would go on to say that if there were Caribbeans and if the conditions were as described by the Comrade then the answer would be that small island Caribbeans had not fully developed their own capacities in relationship to the Big Caribbean States economies and therefore they are outside of the normal development patterns of the Caribbean Bank Development economy! On the other hand, it must be acknowledged that the Comrade, a Pan Caribbean by inclination, does not question the fact that there is a collective sense of Caribbeaness revealed in the common experiences of the Caribbean States! The Comrade, who given his penchant for clarity must have analysed the composition of CDB’s Bureaucratic Class and would have been forced to look to the questions of location, control of the large regional borrowing shareholders, the hegemonic Regional and NON-REGIONAL NON-BORROWING SHAREHOLDERS, marginalization, and power positions of small island personnel in CDB’s management structure as keys to understanding the under representation and underdevelopment of small island companies and people!
CDB was built on World Bank and IMF Models which are North Atlantic Constructs! What should be the inclinations and expectations!
“Yet it is very true that we need a model, and that we want blueprints and examples. For many among us the European model is the most inspiring. We have therefore seen in the preceding pages to what mortifying set-backs such an imitation has led us. European achievements, European techniques and the European style ought no longer to tempt us and to throw us off our balance.” – Frantz Fanon: The Wretched Of The Earth!
You make sense French
French writes loads of baloney. Gonsalves always blaming somebody he ought to take a look in the mirror.
Notes From A Native Son Of The Rock!
“Today I believe in the possibility of love; that is why I endeavor to trace its imperfections, its perversions.” ― Frantz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks!
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