Dan Duguay Auditor General

By Kevin Shereves
Kevin@caymannetnews.com

The Auditor General, Dan Duguay, is insisting that an audit will be conducted on the process of awarding the contract to develop a cruise ship berthing facility at the George Town port, based on government’s efforts to by-pass the Central Tendering Committee process and the proper process for awarding a contract may not have been followed.

Instead of using a bidding process through the Central Tenders Committee, potential developers for the cruise berthing project were vetted through a select committee consisting of Port Authority Chairman Stefan Baraud, his deputy, Robert ‘Woody’ Foster and four government backbench Members of the Legislative Assembly.

“I don’t know why the Central Tendering Committee (CTC) was left out of the process. That is one of the things that we are trying to find out,” Mr Duguay told Cayman Net News.

Stating that it was his job to ensure the proper process according to the Public Management and Finance Law is followed for all government projects, Mr Duguay said that, once a contract has been awarded, an audit would be carried out.

“According to the regulations, any government asset over CI$250,000 needs to go before the CTC no matter how the asset was acquired,” he explained.

“Even if someone gives it to you it still has to go through the CTC,” he said.

Referring to Mr Bush’s statement that if the awarding of the port contract went through the CTC it would be delayed for at least another year, Mr Duguay said, “I do not agree with that rationale. The regulations are clear and need to be adhered to until they are changed.”

Mr Duguay confirmed that he had received a call from Port Authority Chairman Stephan Baraud seeking advice on whether to contact the CTC.

“I got a call from Stephan Baraud asking if they had to go through the CTC, and I said yes they did, according to my understanding of the regulations,” Mr Duguay explained.

The Auditor General pointed out that his office is in the process of writing Mr Baraud to get an explanation as to why the correct process has not been followed to this point.

He said that he would be asking for clarification from Mr Baraud as to the materials that were sent out to the companies for their expression of interest.

Going through the tendering process, he said, would help towards developing a good contract and go a long way in minimising disputes.

“In this case, if the CTC has not been contacted then I can only note that in my report, but I cannot make someone do something,” he said.

“I believe that Mr Bush believes that the port is a crucial infrastructure project, and he may feel he needs to circumvent certain steps to meet his deadlines,” Mr Duguay pointed out.

“I’m not saying that they have, but if they did, I would have to bring it to the public’s attention, and that is why an audit is being carried out,” he said.

Accused by Mr Bush of having an agenda to stifle an opportunity for investment, Mr Duguay responded, “My agenda here is to make sure that we are getting value for money. My only agenda is that the best place to spend the money is to go through the correct process which is through the CTC.”

“No one asked me to do this audit. The decision to conduct an audit is simply mine,” the Auditor General noted.

“We have not seen any request for proposals and we want to see if they are following normal business practices or not,” he said, noting that he was unaware of the criteria for the companies to have been short listed, or how they ended up with the final contractor.

Mr Duguay said that there are six individuals on the committee, who in his opinion do not have significant construction experience.

“Four of them are MLAs which is very unusual because of the nature of the political component,” he said.

Of the four political individuals, two are also members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
In response to Mr Bush’s statement to the media, vowing to sue the Governor and the Auditor General should controversy arise similar to those surrounding the building of the two new schools, Mr Duguay said, “I don’t think that McKeeva’s statements can go unchallenged.”

“If anyone thinks that they are going to sue me in the course of my duty, then go ahead,” he said.

The Auditor General also noted that he was doing his job to the best of his ability with the resources available to him.

“It is my job to look at these situations and I intend to look at them to the best of my ability,” he said.