Tender rules have changed since in my day

It was impressed on me by Frossard House when I was issuing tenders on behalf of HSSD that details of any tendering were to remain secret and had to be seen to be fair on all parties – and was written in many of the policies which controlled this aspect of my work. Only when the tender was awarded could details of tenders be advised to a third party.

This tender can hardly now be described as fair to all parties. I was certainly not allowed to, nor would I have done, advise bidders or anyone else that potential contractors had decided not to tender or the number of prospective tenderers. Every piece of information was to remain confidential to the client.

This as good as tells the tenderer that he has a free hand to up his prices as he sees fit as he will have no competition.

No doubt this consortium will be awarded the contract at some exorbitant price and PSD will probably come back to the States in a couple of years for more money to avoid an overspend.

A case of 'Do as I say, not as I do', I think.

CHRIS TOMLINS,

HSSD estates manager (retired).

Editor's footnote: Public Services minister Paul Luxon responds: 'The team leading this process has extensive experience in negotiating and awarding major contracts and includes representatives of T&R's corporate procurement team and legal advisors from St James Chambers. When it was confirmed that only one consortia intended to bid, the procurement team advised that a negotiated tender would now be a more productive way to proceed. The board of Public Services endorsed that recommendation, which made it necessary to advise the tenderers that we were now in a different stage of the procurement process. We have simply been open with islanders in also providing an update as to the stage we have reached.

The parties in the remaining consortium are under no illusion that any contract is a foregone conclusion. The specification for the new facilities, the design brief and the requirements of each contract remain the same. They still have to demonstrate they can meet our requirements, set out clearly how they intend to do that and provide evidence they will give best value for money for the island.

There will be a lot of rigorous evaluation before any contract is awarded, to ensure the waste strategy is implemented in a way that minimises both capital requirements and ongoing running costs. That means new facilities that are practical and functional, without bells and whistles, so the cost to islanders is kept to a minimum.

If they cannot fully satisfy these requirements, we will look at other options.'