Procurement office unsure of role in refinery sale or lease
Written by Newsday Reporter on January 17, 2025
THE Office of Procurement Regulation (OPR) may not have a role in any decision taken to sell or lease the former Petrotrin refinery in Pointe-a-Pierre.
Procurement regulator Beverly Khan made this comment during a meeting with members of the Parliament’s Finance and Legal Affairs Joint Select Committee (JSC) on January 17.
At a meeting of the Parliament’s Public Accounts Enterprises Committee on January 16, Paria Fuel Trading Company Ltd general manager Mushtaq Mohammed said final proposals from the three short-listed bidders interested in the refinery’s sale or lease will be received by January 27.
He added the evaluation committee will review these offers on February 6 and 7.
When he presented the 2024/2025 budget in the House of Representatives last October, Finance Minister Colm Imbert said there were ten bidders for the refinery which was closed in November 2018.
He added the group was eventually narrowed down to three bidders.
They are locally-based CRO Consortium (DR Commodities Ltd, Chemie-Tech and Ocala); INCA Energy LLC from the US and Nigeria-based Oando PLC.
Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein said there has been a lot of speculation about the refinery’s sale or lease.
He asked if the OPR would have any role in this matter.
Khan said, “Member. I’ll be honest. I cannot say.”
She added the OPR spent some time on guidance related to best practice regarding the disposal of public property in alignment with the requirements of the Public Procurement Act.
“That is as far as the OPR went in this particular.
Finance Ministry permanent secretary Michelle Durham-Kissoon advised Hosein it was incorrect to claim that any regulations related to the possible sale or lease of the refinery were rejected by Cabinet.
“It is not approved as yet.”
Durham-Kissoon said this matter is being deliberated by the Cabinet’s finance and general purposes (F&GP) committee.
“That is a committee of ministers and the ministers would look at the proposals a little more closely to see what the implications are. Make sure they are in tune with government policy.”
She said once this happens the committee would come back to the public servants “for the necessary processes that have to be done.”
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