In a desperate attempt to distract the public from the controversy surrounding former cabinet minister Lanisha Rolle’s resignation, Public Service and National Insurance Minister Brensil Rolle tabled an old and misleading National Insurance Board audit of accounts for 2013.
Conveniently, Rolle chose to table the report one year after he received it then proceeded to stretch the truth to paint his political opponents in an unfavorable light.
The audit, which examined the use of NIB funds for a housing program introduced under the Christie Administration in 2012, claimed that none of the housing projects went out to tender.
However, Rolle knows fully well that contractors do not bid on affordable housing projects.
Authorities set the price and select contractors from a list approved by the Ministry of Housing.
“If you went to tender, people would never be able to afford government houses,” according to a senior official in the Ministry of Housing.
Another government insider pointed out that the Minnis Administration has spent tens of millions of dollars on school repair contracts that never went out to tender, far exceeding the $10 million spent on the housing program.
In December 2017, it was revealed that the renovation project for Stephen Dillet Primary School was not subject to a proper public tendering process.
The government awarded the contract to Mal Jack Construction without a proper public tendering process despite the company previously being banned from the Ministry of Works’ bidding process.
The cost of upgrades was estimated at $4 million. Government protocol dictates that contracts worth more than $50,000 are sent to the Tenders Board for its evaluation while Cabinet deals with contracts worth more than $250,000.
Rolle’s shameless performance in Parliament was pulled straight from the Minnis Administration’s old playbook of shifting public focus away from its latest blunder by pointing fingers at the Christie Administration.
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