Dear Editor – The status of the medical staff house tender in Rennell remain stagnant due to very strict policies and guidelines been applied by the Ministry.
I overheard that the four local contractors and bidders from Renbel, all of them are not meeting the very high and strictly required criteria.
Firstly, unless not, I guess the prime objective of this project is to allow this small staff house to be constructed soon as possible to serve the accommodation need that continue to undermine the services in this part of the province.
Yes, those technical advisors must not forget, the success of the project remains the full responsibilities of all stake holders include the ministry, the contractor, the province and the community.
In addition, we need to learn to trust each other as we jointly support this project. On that basis, I believe the Ministry or whoever responsible in the infrastructure unit, must keep monitoring the progress of the work until the end, so unless the officer responsible is not doing his/her job, the very high and strict rules given are very unnecessary and does help.
Whatever the reasons, considering the size of this small building, with the normal materials required, I don’t think the Evaluation Tech. and MTB, Ministry of Medical required or expected the Fletcher or CCECC or even China Harbor to apply. That is going to be a total waste of energy, times and resources to those huge companies which obviously, PS MHMS, and your technical advisor, you cannot expect the above huge companies to come across and waste their times here in Rennell.
Therefore, only appropriate that you adjust your very strict criteria and allow the local contractors to go ahead.
Another point was the four rejected local contractors originally from Renbel Province, have in fact, did and completed huge projects so far both in Honiara and even around the province.
In other words, this project is very small and any claim that these local contractor cannot do it, is ridiculous and lack substantial.
Otherwise, I cannot rule out any corruption from that office, because the same office, the same faces, the same mindset that corrupted the huge project fund in the ministry some years ago and costed few officer employment opportunities. Even right now, the COVID 19 funding has a lot of questions which again the current team have more questions than answer.
Any more corruption related will leave that to the devil the key witness of all the corruptions that taken rooted in our ministry.
On that basis, let me conclude by suggesting that you re-tender the project, or call for any interview with the current interest contractors, or just award to any proved credible contractor especially from Renbel Province.
George Teika
Renbel
