Turks and Caicos Islands Government’s Capital Projects – Public Procurement Procedure

#Providenciales, October 24, 2018 – Turks and Caicos – The procurement process for capital projects of the Turks and Caicos Islands Government is managed by the Turks and Caicos Islands Procurement Board as per the requirements of the Public Procurement Ordinance of 2014 (PPO).

 The Procurement Board is established according to the provisions of the Public Procurement Ordinance [PPO 23] and consist of:

“(a) a Chairperson, appointed by the Governor in Council to hold office at the pleasure of the Governor;

(b) six officers drawn from across government appointed by the Deputy Governor to hold office at the pleasure of the Deputy Governor;

(c) the Permanent Secretary, Finance; and

(d) the Director of Contracts.

(4) The Auditor General and Chief Internal Auditor (or their nominees) shall be invited to attend meetings of the Board.

(10) An appointed member of the Board may not remain a member of the Board for no more than six years.”

The members of the Procurement Board are as follows:

• Chairperson of the Board / Director, Office of the Governor: Mr. James Astwood
• Director of Planning: Mr. Dainer Lightbourne
• Project Economist: Ms. Salace Richardson
• Financial Manager: Mrs. Kimberley Simmons-Lewis
• Director, Office of the Deputy Governor: Mr. Tito Lightbourne
• Attorney General’s Chambers Representative: Mrs. Khalila Astwood-Tatem
• Attorney General’s Chambers Second Representative: Ms. Yaa McCartney or Mrs. Motheba Linton
• Permanent Secretary, Finance
• Director of Contracts

PPO 24 (1) states:

“The functions of the Procurement Board are to:

(a) award contracts;

(b) approve invitation to tender documents;

(c) approve procurement procedures;

(d) approve the choice of a procurement procedure;

(e) approve solicitation documents before issue;

(f) approve the findings of evaluation panels;

(g) endorse decisions of departmental tender boards; and

(h) approve contract documentation and any amendment to an awarded contract.”

It is the responsibility of the Director of Contracts and the Chairperson of the Procurement Board to “ensure that in carrying out its functions the Procurement Board follows the procedures prescribed” by the PPO [PPO 24 (3)].

In addition, there are several steps involved in the processing of tenders. For ease of reference and public awareness, see the itemized steps listed below from submission of tenders to contract award notification:

1. Tenders are publicly opened immediately following the closing of an Invitation to Tender at the scheduled meeting of the Procurement Board [PPO 23 (13); PPO 41 (2)].
2. All members of the Procurement Board are required to declare if there are any Conflicts of Interest (perceived or actual) with any of the Invitations to Tender which are scheduled to be opened. If a conflict of interest is identified, then the member willbe recused.
3. Following the tender opening, all tenders are handed over to the Chairperson of the Evaluation Panel, as established bythe PPO [PPO 45].
4. Evaluation Panels are formed according to the general composition as outlined inthe PPO [PPO 45]:

“an evaluation panel in respect of a capital project or a public/private partnership project must consist of:

(a) the Director of Contracts or a person appointed by the Director, who shall preside at meetings of the panel;

(b) the Permanent Secretary for the department that has responsibility for the project;

(c) a representative from the Ministry of Finance appointed by the Permanent Secretary, Finance; and

(d) not less than two other member appointed by the Board.”

5. The inclusion of additional members “appointed by the Board” is dependent on the nature of the project. The basis for the selection of persons across government is to ensure that there is an appropriate balance of technical and other pertinent skills relevant to the project included on the Evaluation Panel.

6. All members of the evaluation panel are required to declare if there are any Conflicts of Interest (perceived or actual) with any of the Tenderers who submitted tenders for the project. If a conflict of interest is identified, then the member willbe recused and a replacement will be sought for inclusion on the panel.

7. Each tender is evaluated based on the criteria which was included in the published Invitation to Tender. No changes can be made to the Evaluation Criteria once the Invitation to Tender is closed [PPO 45 (4)]. The general sequencefor the evaluation is as follows:

1. Completed and signed Certificate of Non-Collusion: “An evaluation panel must not consider a tender unless it includes a completed Certificate of Non-Collusion signed by or on behalf of the tenderer” [PPO 49 (1)]. If the certificate of non-collusion is not submitted or is not completed and/or signed, the tender is not considered any further.
2. Meeting Pre-Qualification Criteria: a tender must satisfy all the pre-qualification requirements to move to the next stage.

• Achieving the minimum technical or quality score based on the weightings and minimum score required as stated in the published Invitation to Tender. The minimum score required must be achieved so that the tender can move to the next stage i.e. the price evaluation stage.

1. Evaluation of Price

8. Each member of the Evaluation Panel will score a tender and those scores are moderated with a moderated final score being submitted to the Chairperson of the Evaluation Panel.

9. The Chairperson of the Evaluation Panel prepares an Evaluation Report and circulates to all members of the Evaluation Panel for review and agreement. If necessary, the evaluation report is amended based on any feedback received from members of the Evaluation Panel and recirculated to the panel.

10. The final Evaluation Report, inclusive of a summary of the review and the recommendation of the Evaluation Panel, is submitted to the Procurement Board for agreement that the process was followed according to the provisions of the PPO.

11. The Secretary to the Procurement Board then prepares a Contract Award Notification, which is submitted to the Deputy Governor for onward submission to the Cabinet.

12. The Cabinet considers the Contract Award Notification submitted. The purpose of the Contract Award Notification is to inform the Cabinet of the process followed according to the provisions of the PPO. It includes a summary of the evaluation exercise and the recommendation by the Procurement Board.

13. The Cabinet Secretariat returns an Action Point, advising of the Cabinet’s decision in reference to the Contract Award Notification.

Release: TCIG