‘I’m just trying to avoid a States-sponsored monopoly’
DEPUTY Carl Meerveld has demanded an apology from the States’ Trading Supervisory Board, after claiming the board’s president Peter Roffey deliberately misrepresented what he and his allies were trying to achieve in overturning a food waste contract.
Deputy Meerveld is pursuing a requete to stop the award of a contract to manage the island’s food waste through anaerobic digestion, and wants to put forward a local company which would use flies to break down the food waste. He has said it would prove much cheaper.
STSB is rejecting the proposal and has maintained it intends to sign the new contract.
Speaking while on holiday, Deputy Meerveld said he refuted the claims made in a letter from Deputy Charles Parkinson as vice-president of STSB, and would address them in more detail when he returned this week.
Deputy Meerveld said he was also concerned about what STSB president Peter Roffey had said about Deputy Meerveld’s proposals and wanted an apology.
‘We have acted completely properly and in good spirits at all times,’ he said.
Deputy Roffey said he would happily talk to Deputy Meerveld once he had returned from his holiday.
Deputy Meerveld said he is still proceeding with a requete to challenge the procurement process. His proposal would instruct STSB to relax rules around food waste collections and promote competition and authorisation of food waste sites.
The requete has been drafted and sent to the law officers, he said, and he was hopeful that he would be able to get a ‘broad base’ of States colleagues on board.
‘It’s about promoting and ensuring the basic principles of free market competition, and avoiding a States-sponsored monopoly,’ he said. ‘Companies should not be precluded from competing.’
