SHINE A LIGHT: Concerns Arise Over Transparency, Conflicts of Interest

Chands Engineering Consultants Ltd was one of the five lead consultants engaged by the disbanded Construction Implementation Unit (CIU) to manage the projects.

Sunday 04 February 2024 | 19:24

Ivamere Nataro-Tunidau

Investigative Reporter

Damage caused by TC Winston was widespread, even at Qoma Island.

The rehabilitation of schools damaged by Tropical Cyclone Winston have raised questions of possible conflicts of interest in the awarding of tenders to some contractors.

A three-page excel spreadsheet, obtained from sources directly involved with the project, contains details of the number of affected schools, engineers, and contractors.

Tenders to construct schools were awarded to lead consultants and companies with close association to two major hardware suppliers – and depending on which construction and engineering expert you speak to; some say this is a conflict of interest.

Vinod Patel Works is the construction arm of the Vinod Patel group of companies. The majority shareholder, holding 499,999 shares of the 500,000 total number of shares, is Vinod Patel & Company Limited – the hardware supplier, and the largest company within the Vinod Patel Group of companies.

Directors of Vinod Patel Works and Vinod Patel Company Limited are Jiten Patel, Pravin Patel, Jayanti Patel, and Sachin Patel.

Data on TC Winston indicated that Roofing & Profiles carried out work on 16 schools worth about $7.8 million; Vinod Patel Works and Vinod Patel Company Limited worked on 24 schools with a combined project cost of about $27.7 million.

In a related matter, RC Manubhai and Vinod Patel had failed to deliver full hardware materials to Fijians whose homes were affected by TC Winston as part of the ‘Help for Homes’ initiative, in which they were to pay an interest rate of four per cent to the Government.

In December last year, we published concerns raised by villagers in Tailevu on the failure of the two hardware suppliers to deliver materials they had ordered after swiping their electronic cards that were already loaded with money.

Both hardware companies did not respond to emailed questions and phone calls made on this matter.

In an email received on January 19, RC Manubhai shareholder, Mr Patel, said the article published on December 2-3, 2023, titled Helpless Villagers: Our materials? was malicious because of incorrect information and targeted innocent suppliers like RC Manubhai.

CLEAR DEMARCATION

Mr Jenkins said suppliers should be independent of contractors.

“If there’s a gap in the legal arrangements, people are going to walk right through it,” he said.

“It’s dishonest, they are not selling or charging for what they do. There should be something that makes people responsible.”

Unity Fiji party leader Savenaca Narube said there should be an arm’s length relationship between supplier and contractor.

“That should be provisioned in the contract bidding document of the Government, that should not be entertained."

"You don’t play around with public money,” Mr Narube said.

“We must be strict. There has to be a clear separation of rules between supplier and procurement."

"They shouldn’t be supplying materials if they were also contractors.”

Opposing views were expressed by Mr Kirk, who said: “You’re allowed to tender for the work if you’re a hardware supplier because you can be a contractor as well.

“A lot of people have a lot of string to a lot of bows in this country because you must.”

WAS THERE ANY COST CONTROL?

Government spent $234.5 million on the project; an exorbitant amount of money that could have been reduced if there was any cost control, Mr Jenkins, said.

An expert in the engineering field, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said some people took advantage of such emergency situations.

“You must go case by case to see what damage was there, what was the ratification cost."

"People can play around here and exaggerate the charges,” the engineering expert said, adding this was “public money”.